A Sweet-Smelling Aroma

I love the smell of candles wafting through my home. When I use one of my White Barn candles, the entire downstairs soon fills with pleasant aromas. During COVID-19, my dream for when quarantine restrictions lifted was to smell every candle in Bath and Body Works. The morning after the stores opened, I sniffed candles through a mask to my little nose’s content.

When I took the candles home, I immediately lit one. Fruity scents of pineapple, whipped cream, and fresh orange filled my house with a tropical feeling. Just by lighting three tiny wicks I was transported from the confines of my home to a beautiful beach. When you can’t go to the beach, bring the beach to you!

Then I stared deep into the candle. I realized that for the candle to provide the lovely scents, it had to burn. Three orbs of fire flickered in a pool of wax. To release the smell, not only was the wax set on fire, it also gave away part of itself to comfort me.   

I thought about the Messianic prophecy in Psalm 22:14, “I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me” (NKJV). Jesus’s heart melted as He hung on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. He emptied Himself of all of His rights and bore the fullness of God’s wrath so we could be reconciled to the Father.

Jesus’ love for us honored God and became a pleasant scent to the Lord. Ephesians 5:2 says, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma” (NKJV). We are called to share the same love that Jesus showed us on the cross and become living sacrifices to God. We must give of ourselves to worship God.

Romans 12:1 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (NKJV). I can be selfish at times and don’t always want to surrender my dreams and demands to God. Yet, when I decrease and God increases, my life become a lovely fragrance to the Lord.

Sometimes, my life comes under fire as I am pressed by the cares of this world. When that happens, I have a choice. I can allow the flames to release a sweet-smelling aroma as an offering to the Lord or choose to make a stink about my hardships. As I sit on my couch in the middle of an island breeze, I decide that even if I melt away in the process, I want to be a fragrant incense offering before the throne of grace to fill all of heaven with the smell. May our lives be a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord, even under fire.    

• How about you? Do you feel like your life is under fire? Do you feel like your dreams are melting away before your eyes? What helps you choose to be an offering that brings a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord?