“For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” 2 Corinthians 2:15
I love gardens, I myself don’t like to garden, I have been known to kill a cactus — which I have been assured is an impossibility. But I love to walk through gardens and look at the beautiful beds and also the wide variety of flowers and shrubs God has created.
However, have you ever walked past a yard that has beautiful blooms, only on closer investigation they turn out to be fake? What a disappointment! I’ve seen this particularly in the northern parts of the States where the winters can drag on so long and the growing season is so short.
What some people do is buy plastic or silk flowers and place them in flowerbeds —they look great, but have no smell. My children have also picked lilac blossoms and “planted” them in the beds, only to have those blooms die after a couple of hours.
There’s no life to these blooms; they are not rooted in anything lasting. Now, the “real deal” is rooted. When the summer rains and thunderstorms come, the fake flowers are often blown around and strewn all over the yard, but the real shrubs and flowers remain in their place — they are rooted.
When do flowers release their scent? After the rain, and after the storms. Walk through a garden after the rains and the heady scent of flowers meet your nose, making for a rich aroma of pleasing fragrances.
It is during the storms of life we see how strong our roots are, and those around us smell the aroma of Christ. What fragrance you release is also important. There is the beautiful fresh fragrance of life, one to which people are drawn; or there is the sickly smell of death like the proverbial “death” plant we hear about on the news. Which aroma are you releasing, and are you releasing any at all?
The only way to release a “God-aroma” is to be planted in Him, to know His word, and to be intimate with Him. When you are in close proximity to your spouse who is wearing a fragrance, don’t you smell like them when you move away? In the same way, when we are in close proximity to Jesus, who has the sweetest fragrance of them all, we will come away from Him smelling like Him. I don’t know about you, but I want people to “smell” Jesus when they come near me!
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