About a month and a half ago, we celebrated my nephew's 1/2 birthday. Yep, I'm that crazy aunt who, six years ago, started making half cakes for the boys and celebrating them on their half birthdays. The older nephew isn't a huge cake fan so his mom would often find a half of cherry pie at Walmart and we'd celebrate with that.
This year the day snuck up on us and we didn't make it to Walmart. So while he was at soccer, his brother and I went up to the little neighborhood grocery store to see what we could find. They had huge frozen pies that I would have to bake, but we had no choice. I stuck it in the oven, put a pan below it to catch the drips and waited for him to get home.
It all went well, we enjoyed the pie and celebrating him. The End.
Wait...just kidding...
THAT day all ended well. It wasn't until about a week or two later that a problem that began that night, but had gone undetected, made itself known.
The pan that had been placed in the oven beneath the pie did NOT catch all the drips from pie. In fact, it didn't catch a lot! So now we had quite a smell coming from the oven and it wasn't the cookies we were baking. Burnt ICK smell - yep, that's a thing! - was coming from the oven. Something that had smelled so good and tasted amazing just a few weeks ago now stunk up the entire house, sending smoke through the kitchen.
Even though the cookies were still tasty, we missed out on the enticement of the smell of the cookies beforehand. And that yummy cookie smell was replaced with the burnt smell until the next day.
I read 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 recently and was drawn in by the word "aroma".
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings 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, as those sent from God."
The word aroma means: a distinctive, typically pleasant smell; a subtle, pervasive quality or atmosphere.
I'm not sure I've ever thought more about the difference between the word aroma and the word smell. I just figured they were basically the same. But, smell just means: the faculty or power of perceiving odors or scents by means of the organs in the nose. Definitely a difference.
The aroma of the cherry pie quickly turned to a disgusting smell that was difficult to remove.
Sadly, that is what can happen to Christians. A life that once was a sweet aroma of Christ, a life that shared His love with all they came in contact with, a life that saw to the needs of others before themselves can quickly turn into a smell that can't be removed.
I hear all the time (I'm even writing a book that deals with this topic) that people have decided to stop going to church because someone or a group of people hurt them in the church. Though, to me, that is a very flimsy excuse (more on that another day), I can see how people are turned away at the "smell" of some Christians. I've also run into my share of "smelly" Christians over the years that reek more of their brand of Christianity than the sweet aroma of Christ.
So what scent are you giving off? Are people airing out the place after you leave, trying to get the smell to dissipate? Or are you leaving a sweet aroma that lingers long after you've gone?
This year the day snuck up on us and we didn't make it to Walmart. So while he was at soccer, his brother and I went up to the little neighborhood grocery store to see what we could find. They had huge frozen pies that I would have to bake, but we had no choice. I stuck it in the oven, put a pan below it to catch the drips and waited for him to get home.
It all went well, we enjoyed the pie and celebrating him. The End.
Wait...just kidding...
THAT day all ended well. It wasn't until about a week or two later that a problem that began that night, but had gone undetected, made itself known.
The pan that had been placed in the oven beneath the pie did NOT catch all the drips from pie. In fact, it didn't catch a lot! So now we had quite a smell coming from the oven and it wasn't the cookies we were baking. Burnt ICK smell - yep, that's a thing! - was coming from the oven. Something that had smelled so good and tasted amazing just a few weeks ago now stunk up the entire house, sending smoke through the kitchen.
Even though the cookies were still tasty, we missed out on the enticement of the smell of the cookies beforehand. And that yummy cookie smell was replaced with the burnt smell until the next day.
I read 2 Corinthians 2:14-17 recently and was drawn in by the word "aroma".
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings 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, as those sent from God."
The word aroma means: a distinctive, typically pleasant smell; a subtle, pervasive quality or atmosphere.
I'm not sure I've ever thought more about the difference between the word aroma and the word smell. I just figured they were basically the same. But, smell just means: the faculty or power of perceiving odors or scents by means of the organs in the nose. Definitely a difference.
The aroma of the cherry pie quickly turned to a disgusting smell that was difficult to remove.
Sadly, that is what can happen to Christians. A life that once was a sweet aroma of Christ, a life that shared His love with all they came in contact with, a life that saw to the needs of others before themselves can quickly turn into a smell that can't be removed.
I hear all the time (I'm even writing a book that deals with this topic) that people have decided to stop going to church because someone or a group of people hurt them in the church. Though, to me, that is a very flimsy excuse (more on that another day), I can see how people are turned away at the "smell" of some Christians. I've also run into my share of "smelly" Christians over the years that reek more of their brand of Christianity than the sweet aroma of Christ.
So what scent are you giving off? Are people airing out the place after you leave, trying to get the smell to dissipate? Or are you leaving a sweet aroma that lingers long after you've gone?
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