Do you ever think about the fragrance of Christ? What is it, what does it mean. And really, what DOES He smell like?
I once read one of those tear-jerker email forwards about a baby girl who was born severely premature and was not expected to live. Due to her immature little immune system, her parents were unable to hold her or touch her. As she lay there isolated in the incubator, webs of tangled tubing pouring from her tiny body, her mother fervently, desperately prayed that somehow, some way Jesus would hold her little girl in her stead.
This little girl miraculously survived and became a completely healthy, bubbly 5-year-old. One day, she was with her mother at her older brother’s little league game. The sky was darkening, and a rain shower was imminent. Her mother looked at the sky and casually commented, “Oh, it smells like rain.”
Her daughter crossed her arms, looked at her mother with furrowed little eyebrows, and said, “No, it doesn’t.”
Her mother then asked, “Well, honey, what does it smell like?”
She said, “It smells like him.”
“Who, honey?”
She calmly replied, “It smells like Jesus, when you lay your head on His chest, and He holds you.”
The fragrance of the Savior.
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Many of you know that one of the ways we show Christ’s love to the women working in the adult industry are through gifts — gifts of fun, girly things like body sprays, lotions, scented candles. No strings attached. Expecting nothing in return. Because they ARE worth it.
Our prayer for each and every one of these gifts is that every time the woman smells the sweet fragrance of a lotion on her skin, inhales the scent of a candle filling her home, spritzes a body spray onto her wrists, that that scent will be a tangible reminder of Someone who values her, welcomes her, plans for her, and LOVES her. . . always, forever, with no strings attached.
What we hope becomes the fragrance of Christ.
Perhaps our Jesus does smell like the coming rain.
Or a freshly-fallen winter snow?
What if He smells like the mountains at sunrise, the air thick with pine tree and wetness?
Or the salty spray of the ocean off the rocky cliffs at sunset?
What if He is orange blossom and jasmine, lemongrass and lavender, basil and bergamot?
Or, what if the fragrance of Christ is something as simple as the scent of “Warm Vanilla Sugar” body lotion, intermingled with the fierce love and tender mercy of a couple of girls who go to these women and tell them, “You, precious woman, are insanely, infinitely, desperately, overwhelmingly, perfectly LOVED. We just wanted you to know.”
Related post: Strip-Club Ministry: My Daughter’s Story
For more Uplifting Resources for Discouraged Pastors, visit Pastor Stone’s main site.
