#Fragrances

"A woman isn't fully dressed," she told me, "until she has put on a fragrance." I agreed since that had been my philosophy for quite a few years. I always made sure I had a fragrance to spray on my wrists  and the nape of my neck and behind my ears, every day. She brought the subject up after having noted that she liked my perfume. There are a few people who come by my cash register that mention that to me.

One Saturday as I was pushing my cart in the grocery store, a young man passed by me heading out and stopped about six steps behind me and turned around and and headed back to me asking what perfume I was wearing that he wanted to get it for his girl friend.

The sense of smell is powerful. It can remind you of when you were a child and breakfasts on Sunday mornings when dad used to cook pancakes and bacon. It can remind you of sitting on your grandmother's lap when you were small or a dear friend you used to hang around with. This sense of smell makes me wonder if we have a 'spiritual' nose that can detect another's spiritual condition.

A bubbly, bouncy gal came into Walgreen's with her nephew, about ten years old, Sunday evening. She had a few purchases and he, also. She started out by announcing that she was a Jersey Girl and just visiting here. I asked if she had been born in New Jersey and she told me that she had been born in New York, but her family had moved to Jersey when she was four and she was most definitely a Jersey Girl. I told her that I was born and raised in Memphis, but came to Virginia from Wisconsin. A few comments later she thanked me for being so nice and said, "God bless you." which led me to give her my business card which led her to have tears well up in her eyes as I shared about my son's accident as the reason for writing my book. In just a very few seconds we became friends and were hugging one another over the counter.

My reason for sharing this is the proposition that her spirit sensed my spirit as a fragrance touches a nose and I, hers. We will probably never see each other again in this world, but I believe we will see one another again. There was a connection and a real warmth as she bubbled over how good Jesus was and all the while her nephew was standing aside and shaking his head over our antics. This was, for me, a God moment as we, two strangers were enjoying the kin-ship we had.

2 Corinthians 2:15 says that we are the fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Yes, we can sense that something different in others who have the Spirit of Christ residing in them and there is a connection. It makes life delightful to those who are being saved and, by contrast as the verse tells us, those who are perishing may have an automatic dislike and revulsion to a believer. The sense of smell is powerful.

One note here: you can remove that strong smell of onions on your hands after chopping a batch by rubbing your hands across the flat side of a stainless steel knife. You may not want to smell like onions all day.