As believers, do we carry the presence of God with us everywhere we go?
When a friend of mine was in High School something got under their home and filled their house with the pungent odor that is unmistakably skunk! After a week the smell still lingered however, they were nose blind to the remaining faint odor. Perhaps you can imagine how a wool sweater might retain some odor after such an incident but my friend didn’t smell a thing. While he and a friend walked through the school, engrossed in conversation, she apparently wasn’t aware of the odor until another person commented that it smelled like skunk. My friend was embarrassed and relieved when the young lady, he was walking with, commented, “Yeah, now that you mention it, the whole school smells like skunk!”
When my friend shared his experience, of course we laughed, but it reminded us of how God, through us, spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.
Another friend of mine described it like this, “When you walk in wet shoes, you know that sound every time you take a step and how the water squishes out leaving big wet footprints where you’ve been?” He said, “It’s like that in the spirit; we carry the Holy Spirit where ever we go.”
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. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?1
My Prayer: Lord, who is equal to such a task? Certainly not I; Lord, your ways and thoughts are not my ways and thoughts.2 How can I accurately represent you? God please fill me with your love and create in me a clean heart where your Holy Spirit can dwell so that my heart will overflow the fragrance of you to everyone I meet.3 4 Amen.