What is your favorite smell? When you think of the smell, does a memory come to mind?
I have a favorite place to sit and contemplate life. I like to sit in a swing on our covered patio.
From there I can look over our back yard and then across the fence to a beautiful, lush pasture. Horses graze there.
Today sunshine and a gentle breeze made it even more of a delight. The breeze brought the fragrant smell of the blossoms of our Sweet Bay Magnolia.
Its smell brought to mind another of my favorite smells from the past. When I was growing up, there was a banana shrub right outside the window of my room.
Frequently we had all the windows open in the spring. I would lie across my bed, read and enjoy the fragrance from outside.
After I left home, I always looked forward to returning in the spring. When I first got out of the car, even before my parents’ welcoming hug, I would smell that wonderful scent. It was as if that tree was welcoming me home.
God created every part of our bodies in unique ways … and always as a Part of His Masterful Plan. This is especially evident in the way our brains are created.
God connected our sense of smell with our memories. Smells get routed through a part of the brain that analyzes the smell. That part of the brain is closely connected to the part of the brain that handles emotion and memory.
There is a very important connection between Jesus and a fragrance. John 12:3 records what happened about a week before Jesus’ Crucifixion.
“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ Feet and wiped His Feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”
When Judas objected to what he saw as a waste of what could have been sold for money, Jesus said,
“It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial.”
John 12:7
It was not yet the day of Jesus’ Burial. But it is likely the smell was so strong, it lasted on through His Burial. If that is the case, everyone who came in contact with Him over the next week would have been exposed to the smell of that sweet perfume.
And it would have been linked into their memory. From that day forward, every time they remembered Jesus, the smell would come to mind. Every time they smelled that smell or something similar, they would think of Jesus.
When anyone opens their heart to Jesus, the sweet smells of Heaven pour forth. And even when hearts are still closed, His Fragrance fills the air.
Close your eyes and breathe in His Presence. Know that you carry His Fragrance with you wherever you go.
“For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.”
2 Corinthians 2:15
“Follow God’s Example, therefore as dearly loved children and walk in the way of Love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and Sacrifice to God.”
Ephesians 5:1-2
