What's That Smell?

Photo by Yuliia Harashehenko

For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing (2 Cor 2:15 AMP)

My husband and I had an interesting conversation decades ago. We were kicked back at our kitchen table, a little too relaxed in our pot-induced daze, when his comments took a turn toward the short time he’d walked with Jesus years before I knew him. I sensed a wistfulness in his voice as he described in depth what it felt like to walk in close relationship with Him—before he fell away. The more he reminisced about those days long gone, the more melancholic his mood became.

Listening to him was bittersweet. My muddled heart couldn’t come to terms with what it felt about Jesus being center stage in our conversation. I was offended, a little repulsed even, that someone in my husband’s backslidden condition talked so intimately about Someone so sacred. It didn’t help matters that my conscience badgered me about not honoring my own commitment made to Jesus in my youth. But I was still a good person; shouldn’t that count for something?

On the other hand, there was a sweetness about the way he described their relationship. I never dreamed such closeness with Jesus was even possible. It made my heart ache for what I knew down deep I didn’t have—had never had. I wanted, no, I needed to know this Jesus like my husband once knew Him. So, you could say I also felt drawn; drawn to the fragrance of the possibility of intimacy.

Years after we both fully surrendered to Jesus, I was again seated at our kitchen table, this time drinking coffee with a woman I had recently met. Who she was, and how she came to be sitting across from me at my table, is warehoused somewhere in the back of my mind. But there she sat, nonetheless, talking about her intimate relationship with Jesus.

There was nothing hyper religious or braggadocios in her words. Nothing she said guilted me to model myself after her. In short, she was a woman indisputably in love with the Man, Christ Jesus.[i] I doubt she even realized I was downwind of this beautiful fragrance of the knowledge of Him she unashamedly exhaled all over me.[ii] By then, I was like a hungry pup around a freshly opened can of Filet Mignon in gravy dog food, my spiritual sniffer was devouring every whiff of Him. I craved more.

I realize now that their common denominator was that they both—just ordinary people—had been deeply knit with our extraordinary Savior. Jesus’ life so closely interwoven with theirs produced a fragrance of the knowledge of God that, like the disciples Peter and John, couldn’t help but boldly exhale through them—only to be inhaled by God, and by me.[iii] 

What strikes me about these two (and many other fragrance carriers since), is how they affect others. The lingering scent in my backslidden husband acted as the stench of death to my religious misconception that reciting a prayer of salvation allowed me to live footloose.[iv] That same scent in him, and years later in the woman, beckoned me to reach for greater depths of intimacy with Jesus so I could be so one with Him that others could smell our intimacy.

If someone were to ask me what Christ smelled like and how I knew it was Him, I’d be at a loss for words. God is Love.[v] What does Love smell like? Based on personal experience, my husband is convinced He smells like roses. God is Spirit.[vi] What does Spirit look like? Yet, His presence is undeniable. The aroma of His perfume is unmistakable. His effect on people—if they are open—is extremely contagious. Your name is like perfume poured out . . . Draw me! We will run after you![vii]

So, what’s that smell? It’s those bold carriers of Jesus again. They’re out there exhaling His fragrance all over everybody.[viii] 

Inhale deeply!

[i] 1 Timothy 2:5

[ii] 2 Corinthians 2:14–15

[iii] Acts 4:13; 2 Corinthians 2:14

[iv] Acts 26:18; Ephesians 5:8; James 2:26; John 14:15; 1 Peter 1:15–16

[v] 1 John 4:8

[vi] John 4:24

[vii] Song of Solomon 1:3–4

[viii] Jeremiah 9:24 AMP