Recently my husband had to attend a work-related conference in our state capital. Since the conference lasted only one day, and since his employer was paying for the hotel the night before, we decided that the kids and I would accompany him, and we’d stay a little longer and turn it into a mini-vacation.
For three nights, we stayed in a nice hotel. In the mornings, the hotel served a hot breakfast downstairs. One morning, Phil took a kid or two down to breakfast, and I followed later with the remaining kids once the rest of us were ready.
The elevator arrived, and my kids dashed on (good thing nobody was trying to get off). I followed them, and as I turned to tell Jessica which button to push, I noticed a delicious aroma. It was the smell of hot and sizzling sausage patties with fluffy scrambled eggs on the side. It was warm, golden-brown buttermilk waffles, sugary maple syrup, and melting butter. It was orange juice and ripe strawberries and fresh black coffee.
“Mmmm, this elevator smells like breakfast,” I said.
Perhaps the aroma had wafted up from downstairs; perhaps people who had been to breakfast had also been in the elevator. Maybe it was a combination of both. Either way, that delicious food was giving off the aroma of, well, food.
Obvious, right? After all, what else would a delicious breakfast smell like but a delicious breakfast?
And that’s the point. If it is, in fact, a delicious breakfast, it will smell like one. It will give off the aroma of yummy food, and it will cause those smelling it to become even hungrier. If, on the other hand, the foods are not fresh and healthy, the breakfast will smell quite different. Rotten eggs give off quite a different smell from fresh ones. Stale coffee smells terrible. Waffles cooked a little too long smell burnt. There’s no way to disguise a breakfast like that as anything someone would want to eat.
Did you know that you and I give off an aroma too? I’m not talking about smelling a little funny because you’ve been working out. Nor do I mean smelling floral because you are wearing perfume. I’m talking about the kind of aroma referred to in 2 Corinthians 2:14 (see below), wherein God desires to spread the knowledge of His Son to everyone with whom we come in close proximity.
The only problem is, we may not be spreading the right aroma.
Instead of spreading the aroma of Christ, His love, and His ways, it’s entirely possible to be spreading the stench of hatred and impatience. Instead of emanating a beautiful aroma of sacrifice, truth, and uprightness, we can instead emit the stink of selfishness, falsehood, and disgrace.
You and I spread an aroma to everyone with whom we come in contact. That’s a given. The only thing to be settled is what kind of aroma. When people step into the elevator of our lives, will they be pleased and want more of what we have? Or will they get out of the elevator, hurry back to their room, and vow never to eat breakfast again?
Take some time in prayer before the Lord. Ask Him to show you what people sense when they are around you. Do you spread the pleasing aroma of Christ, or do people retreat from you?
Breakfast gives off the scent of, well, breakfast. What scent results from your life?
2 Corinthians 2:14-15—But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.