The aroma of Christ

 I watch for a blue painted mail box that tells me I've made it to my destination. I turn left and drive a quarter of a mile down the gravel road, park my car next to the garage and grab my bags. I enter the door with out knocking and yell out hello. A corresponding hello greets me from the kitchen. By the time my bags are dropped and shoes are kicked off my grandma is there to give me a big hug. At some point my grandpa comes in and as I hug my Papa Bob I inhale his smell. It's a smell I love. It's a smell that's all him. It's the mixture of sweat and wood smoke. While it isn't exactly the most pleasant smell, it's a smell I love because it is my Grandpa.

The Bible says we are to be the aroma of Christ.

2 Corinthians 2: 14-17 "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."

It's a distinct smell. To some it may be sweet smell - the fragrance of life, but to others a bitter smell - the smell of death.

My grandpa always had this distinct smell because of who he was. He spent hours about the farm working on projects, chopping and hauling wood, building, gardening, working in his wood shop, hence the smell of sweat. For years my grandparents used a wood burning furnace to heat their house, hence the smell of wood smoke. Because he worked and fueled the fire he often smelled of it when I arrived to their house.

As Christians we will smell because of who we are and what we do. It was always evident that my Papa Bob had been out working or that he kept the furnace going by fueling it with wood. You could smell it on him. He simply had that aroma.

Is the aroma of Christ evident in your life? Do you simply have that aroma?