One whiff.
We’ve all experienced it. A scent, as familiar as our own skin, catches us off guard. One brief smell, and we’re in another time and place. Or maybe it’s more vague and the smell is attached to more of a feeling or emotion. Whatever the destination, the effect is powerful.
Moth balls are my time machine. I will admit, moth balls themselves emit a less than pleasant aroma. Does anyone even use them anymore? It’s been many years since I’ve caught their odor. That sharp, musky scent may be an aversion to many, but for me, it’s an aromatic gateway to another time and place.
Grandma’s house, circa 1980s to be exact. Ah, yes…the good old days. Rusty oranges and browns still dominated the décor, accented by the occasional olive green, usually in the shape of the refrigerator. Shag carpets, ruffled curtains, and that one brown velour couch, covered in a floral motif and boasting solid wood feet and armrests. You know the one. Everyone had one.
Grandma’s house was a place of exploration and hidden treasures, ice cream trucks passing just beyond the front door, and Big Wheel races down a sidewalk that split the backyard in half.
Then there was that one closet that smelled of moth balls. Only vague memories of what was stored in there linger. A dog collar and leash, trash bags maybe, brooms and mops and other things that Grandmas need to keep their home in order.
To this day, if I smell one of those little round white balls, I can close my eyes and see in detail Grandma’s back room. The room where all of us grandkids who were too small for the grown-up table sat, chatting and happy with our Tupperware plates and little plastic cups that looked like coffee mugs. It’s where books were read and late night games were played on hot summer nights. Outside the open windows that lined the room, crickets chirped and the electric bug zapper buzzed with the sound of unlucky insects meeting their demise.
The memories are strong and vivid, which is saying something because my memory isn’t so great thirty-some years later.
It’s a tribute to the power of a scent.
I’m guessing you’ve experienced this for yourself. The smell of an aftershave as you pass someone in the store, or a tendril of tobacco smoke lingering in the air, reminding you of Uncle Joe and the pipe he always smoked. A family recipe baking in the oven, sending the memories of bygone days skittering through the kitchen. It could be a thousand different possibilities, each triggering a reaction unique to the sniffer. Some happy. Perhaps some not-so-happy.
Did you know the Bible talks about smells? I have been audio booking the Bible this year and was recently in the book of Exodus, where I came across something interesting. I know I’ve read this before, but somehow I’ve glanced over it all these years. (That’s the wonderful thing about Scripture….we’ve never seen or known it all.)
In Exodus 30, God gives instruction on how to make an anointing oil and incense for the Tabernacle in its infancy. He’s very specific. As I listened to the narrator read through the detailed recipe, the crafter in me started to wonder if I could recreate this oil. I could call it “Essence of Tabernacle.”
That seemed fitting, as the verses continued to explain that not only would it be used to anoint Aaron and the priests, but it’s literally splashed like a cologne all over the items in the Tabernacle.
My entrepreneurial dreams were crushed pretty quickly though as the chapter ended in a warning of how the people were forbidden from making it for personal use, as it was holy to the Lord. Guess I’ll have to find a new crafting idea.
All joking aside, however, the big idea here is that the Tabernacle had a scent. A smell unique to itself and the priests who served there. As a Hebrew in that time, it would have been distinct and recognizable. Memories would have been attached to the aroma. Visits to the Tabernacle would have been drenched in the fragrance. Walking past a priest in the street and catching a whiff would likely have been a reminder of sacrifices made and sins forgiven. Bleating and lowing, blood and ash, incense and murmured prayers. Memories entwined in the invisible swirls of a spice-filled perfume.
As I pondered on this, I wondered if anyone has smelled this particular scent since the time of the Tabernacle and Temple. It would have little to no meaning today. No attached memories. Its purpose had been to mark the thing or person it was applied to as holy to the Lord. It was symbolically sacrificial.
The priesthood, as it was known in the Old Testament, has been abolished, with Jesus Himself as our high priest now. As Jesus followers, we’re His
ambassadors. Perhaps a perfume of our own is in order. A new craft idea? Parfum de Believer? Perhaps not.
The truth is, there is in fact a smell particular to a believer. Just as the anointing oil of the Tabernacle was a pleasing aroma, dripping with the concept of sacrifice, ours is a less tangible but still very real spiritual aroma of Christ on us. We should be drenched with Eau de Savior, and the world should smell it.
See 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. Go ahead and read it now. I’ll wait.
“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. Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.”
It’s a scent that should stir the spiritual senses.A whiff of the eternal as we rub elbows with our neighbors. It should awaken their souls to the reality of a divine Deliverer who emancipated the walking dead from the curse of sin.
The scent of sacrifice, testifying to a broken world of our sweet Savior who holds all our tears, covers our darkest stains, and promises us an eternity in His presence.
So, go on now.
Don’t be shy.
Use it liberally.
Douse yourself.
Now get out there so everyone can catch a whiff.
CHECK OUT MY OTHER POSTS!
Longing & Belonging 
Leave a comment