Aroma of Victory

Making small talk in the kitchen at church one Sunday, a young man told me he had camped out the night before. We commiserated about how the unexpected cold had surprised him and how he wrapped every layer he brought around him—jeans, a flannel, and a hammock—leaving him wishing for at least one more layer when the thermometer read 53 degrees.

Standing close by, I smelled evidence of his work to keep himself warm—remnants of cedar smoke wafted around him in an almost visible haze. I sat close by during the entire service, with the reminder of his campsite embers filling my nostrils.

I remembered Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16a:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.

For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.”

I’m positive my friend went home and took a shower just as soon as he could. But the cedar and smoke he left behind has reminded me since of how you and I, as believers, carry the Holy Spirit with us wherever we go.

Have you ever felt the Holy Spirit waft through another person as you interact with them? You today, dear friend, spread this fragrance as you go from commitment to meeting, meeting to meal, and meal to farewell. May my friend’s smoke-filled flannel shirt remind us.

How can you spread the fragrance of the knowledge of God where you go today? How might God spread it in and through you? May your life waft gently and strongly with the fragrance of Christ’s triumph.