A Sweet Aroma...

 February 21, 2014

Dear Ones,

   I could hear them coming, the elevator bell, the laughter, the chatter, the opening of doors, the rustle of jackets and scarves being pulled off, and then the burst through the door with the exclamations of “We knew you were here, we could smell it, the cinnamon and the fresh baked sweet of whatever it is- what is it, can we eat it now?!?!?!”   I had to smile as bodies all gathered round hands’ reaching for muffins pulled fresh from the oven, they all chattered about how they came out of the cold stepped into the elevator and KNEW I was cooking, as they looked at one another and exclaimed… “mmmmm Mariah.”

   I thought about it and just had to share, it is something you may not know about my world here but that is lots of fun to give you a glimpse of.  I am known in the House as being the creative one with a lot of things but food is one of those creative outlets, the “family” tends to give me a hard time in a loving way that I am the one who takes all the left overs or the random items of food that have been brought or left behind and turns them into good…maybe even incredibly good dishes of food that we all enjoy.  It is something I love doing- taking what is left behind, what is about to go bad, the things that no one else can find a use for or know what to do with and turning it into something wonderful that literally draws people from all over the house into the kitchen.  There are a couple of interns who would laugh and say, “There she goes again with that, essentially utilizing resources.”  But hey, I never heard them complain about the cooking!  Is it not amazing how the smell of something wonderful draws you in beckoning you to come just as a stench causes you to draw back or turn away?  We miss smells, aromas of home, of a special person, the wafting fragrance lingering, we hate smells, things that taint, the smell of death, or rotting, our sense of smell tells us to come to dinner, to sip our coffee, that there are fresh baked cookies, that someone was in the elevator, and I hope it was not right after they took out the bags of diapers, it tells us  to run from danger, to clean out the fridge, or fix the broken pipes, we smell water, fresh snow, blooming roses, gardens, produce, dirt, streets filled with carts and people, formula on baby’s breath, and the list could go on and on…

“But thanks be to God, who leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.  And who is adequate for these things?”

II Corinthians 2:14-16

  What fragrance do I leave behind, what smell do people miss when I am gone, what aroma enters the room when I come in?  Is it Christ living in me or is it something rotting, are others drawn to it longing to linger, to simply sit and take it in or are they ready to run from the gagging or the danger.  My prayer today... 

  "Lord, make my life a living fragrance of You…"

By His Grace alone,

Mariah