June 04, 2017

Sunday Devotional With Mr. E: Smells Like...

I love the smell of art, art making, art supplies, and art places!  Smells have a way of transporting you to a time & place where your memories connect to your senses. I think these smells stick with me most of all because they revolve around where & what I've invested so much of my life.  I spent hours with my Aunt Bonnie coloring as a child.  She had an old cookie tin she would keep the crayons that she collected from the floors of the school I grew up going to where she was a custodian.   That cookie tin had such a distinct smell, but every once and awhile I catch a whiff of something that reminds me of it.  Instantly I'm back on the floor coloring with her.....my start in art.   I've used the same watercolor palette since I was in college.  Watercolors have a distinct smell about them as well. I smell the paint, see the colors, feel the palette....and I'm reminded of so many hours, ideas, works of art, successes, and failures.  It is just amazing how a smell can remind you of so much more than the object producing the odor.  

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ has loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.  Ephesians 5: 1-2

Is it odd to think God can "smell" things?  Ephesians uses the term "fragrant aroma" in regards to our offering & sacrifice to God.  This aroma is connected to our heart, mind, and effort as we strive to serve God.  He calls us to be imitators of Him. He calls us to walk in love.  He calls us to be like Christ.  The aroma is so much more than one "thing"...it is connected.  It should smell like...JESUS.  Our good works are like dirty rags(Isaiah 64:6).  I can't imagine that would smell very good to the Lord.  It is a reminder though that we can not live this life out of our own efforts. It is through Christ, in Christ, and because of Christ that we are sons & daughters of God.  The ultimate offering & sacrifice was the life & death of Jesus. (The ultimate victory was rising from the dead!)  I want people to see Jesus in me.  I want people to feel & know the love of Christ through my words, attitudes, and actions.  And I guess...I want people to smell Jesus too! ha ha    

1 comment:

  1. Excellent post! So true about smells of all kinds but art smells.....mmmm! I love turpentine!

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