Take a Whiff This Instant!

Take a Whiff

The tire section at an auto parts store.
Hawaiian Tropic brand sunscreen.
A sidewalk two minutes after a downpour.
Campfire smoke.
Piping hot homemade cinnamon raisin bread.

These are some of my favorite scents. No matter how bad my mood, each has the power to instantaneously take me to a happy place. You can try it sometime if you want… just take me to Wal-Mart and steer me to the tire section. I’ll come out one minute and ten deep breaths later a new person. Or simply hand me that gleaming white bottle with the bright blue top. It may be snowing and hailing outside, but it won’t matter. One whiff of SPF 15 will melt the worry lines from my forehead and make me smile like a fool.

Different scents cause different reactions in different people. That makes sense. Smells are intricately connected to our emotions via past experiences with them. But, generally speaking, most people will agree when something smells “good” or “bad.”

Chocolate is one of those scents that is commonly declared good. Rotten eggs? Bad. Fresh air, good. A dumpster, bad. It’s those peculiar odors on the sliding scale in between them, like gasoline, burgers, Pine sol, and my beloved tire section, that prompt heated arguments either for or against an aroma’s happiness-inducing capabilities. Same scent, different reactions.

Have you ever thought about the scent you leave other people after you vacate a room? Not just when you’re freshly showered or -- at the other end of the spectrum -- suffering the ramifications of a refried bean burrito. I mean the emotional fragrance you impart upon others. Are you like fresh movie theater popcorn to your coworkers? Could you be a chocolate bar to a stressed-out first-time mother? What about grandma’s apple pie to a soul suffering loss?

We all have one distinct scent that we take wherever we go. But, no matter how good we think we smell, we will always come into contact with others who pinch their noses in our presence. And that’s a good thing. Our signature scent is supposed to produce different responses. But the moment we try a potpourri life in order to please the countless different noses around us, that’s the moment we become a singular, intolerable stench to the only One whose sniffer really matters.

"Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume." 2 Corinthians 2:15-16

"Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess." Hebrews 4:13-14