Daily Word of Grace # 43 (May 14, 2020)
As you know, your sense of smell, olfactory sense, is especially powerful in triggering memories. A smell can instantly transport you back to specific moment in your life. These memories may be good—perhaps the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven transports you back to your grandmother’s kitchen, or the smell of fresh cut grass on a fall afternoon transports you to a high school athletic practice, or the smell of cotton candy transports you back to a county fair your parents took you to as a child. However these memories may not be so good—perhaps the smell of a hospital room transports you back to a loved one’s deathbed, or the smell of a certain perform as you walk through a shopping mall transports you back to the moment the girl you loved (who wore that exact perfume) broke your heart, or the smell of a certain kind of flower that transports you back to a funeral where you wept. Just days before his passion and death, Jesus was at a dinner party and in a moment of extravagant generosity a woman broke a jar of expensive perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet, foreshadowing his impending death and burial (John 12:1-8). That perfume was so strong it is likely that even on the cross Jesus could still smell that evidence that he was loved. Scripture compares those who share the gospel of the unconditional love of God with others to a good smell, “the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved” (2 Corinthians 2:15). The fragrance of God’s extravagant grace will always transport you to a place where you are reminded you are fully known, fully forgiven, fully loved.
Love and Prayers,
Dave