Ooooo that smell!!!

Photos taken by: Cody Haines

There is an unbelievably alluring smell in the air late at night and early in the morning all around me this time of year.  I go out for late night, and early morning, drives just to catch a whiff of it.   It is the fragrance of the Honeysuckle flowers that hang like drapery all around me.  The Vine remains hidden most of the year. It just looks like twisted, gnarled branches in the Winter, and blends into the rest of the greenery around it during the Hot Summer months.  But now, in Late Spring, it blooms, and its fragrance is exhilarating. I confess, I’m addicted to the smell of Honeysuckle.  Hyacinth and Lilac have the same effect on me.  I say all this to make this point.  There is a fragrance that our lives give off as well.  Scripture tells us this.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. ¹⁵ For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; ¹⁶ to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.  (2 Corinthians 2)

I want to have the kind of fragrance wafting up from my Life that draws people toward me.  I don’t want to stink, or have a stench, that  drives people to run the other way.  I desire for God to manifest the Sweet aroma of the Knowledge of Him in every place my body occupies at the moment.  I learned years ago from God, that the hardest place to smell sweet is in our own homes, with those closest to us.  I sensed that God wanted me to concentrate fully on how I treated my husband and 3 children.  It took a lot of hard work, many, many “I’m Sorry, please forgive me” moments.  But God has transformed me from the Innermost part.  There are still a lot of “I’m sorry’s”,  but our God is so good, and will never cease to “manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”  Our  call is to yield to the work of Christ in our most intimate relationships,.  The ones we have with our husbands, wives, children; even the people we work with, each and every day.  May Our Precious God continue to make each of us a Sweet Smelling Aroma of Christ wherever we are.ay.  If you ask Him, He will show you where to start.  It is such a Precious, and yet arduously wonderful journey we take.  God Bless  your day.