Odor, Smell or Fragrance.......What am I?

How do odors, smells or fragrances effect you? Smelling fresh dill in a grocery store in the summer reminds me of great summers in the Ozarks. Every summer for my first 14 years of life we visited cousins, double cousins of my dad's....it was wonderful...my only girl cousin, small town with the water tower land mark, the lake for swimming and boating, playing dress up, visiting Aunt Mandy, who was always so glad to see me, and watching the morning glories open while trailing over the trellis on her front porch. Walking down the hill to the town square and having a 20 cent strawberry soda while my cousin always had chocolate. Buying new clothes at Ropers, the dry goods store with the wooden floors. Gathering eggs from the chickens that all had names, eating fried chicken and grabbing what I thought was the gizzard off the platter, so my cousin wouldn't get it, only to find I grabbed the chicken's liver. Well I sat there until the liver was finally eaten. All I remember is I was at the table a long time and shed many tears before that liver was eaten. I will not eat liver to this day. All these memories flood over me when I smell fresh dill, POWERFUL! We visited in the summer and there was always a bounty of fresh vegetables, especially, tomatoes and cucumbers. Those were the days of preserving for winter, and one of the  results  was home canned dill pickles. While I never cared for the homemade dill pickles I loved the place they were canned and it's aroma, Caroline's kitchen.
Other aromas that bring pleasant memories are roses, from my Grandmother's rose garden. Do you notice how roses today rarely smell like they use to?  "Old Spice"....reminds me of John and when we first met.  "English Leather"....made me sick when I was pregnant. Still don't care for it.

Well all this being said.....recently a friend was reflecting on a certain situation in which we're both involved.   After expounding on the situation she said....."it's just smells!" She was saying she didn't like what was going on. I was in agreement with her about the problem and after she said it smells I thought, what a good observation and very accurate too.  It is a situation that should not have an odor.  As followers of Christ we should have a fragrance, not an odor or a smell! Since we live in a fallen world situations we find ourselves involved in sometimes do have odors or smells and not a fragrance.  Chapter two of second Corinthians verses 14-17.... Paul says to the Corinthians, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God."

Several weeks ago I heard a well know Christian speaker, Becky Manley Pippert.  In her talk she used an illustration of a woman who had been in a seeker Bible study with her.  The woman moved to live in a country closed to Christianity.  The woman later told Becky of meeting a couple at a market place.  They became friends.  The woman  also told Becky, "they had your aroma!"  Approximately 16 years passed before Becky heard from this woman again. She had become a follower of Christ.  We, you and I, don't know what happened during those 16 years.  Did she find others along the way who "had the aroma"? We do know God was drawing this woman to Himself through many means, aromas being just one.   I have to ask myself.....do I give off the aroma that will draw others to the fragrance of life?  My prayer is to have this aroma!