Life and incense

Yesterday, as I was driving to work, one of my favourite songs came on. It is hard to describe the feeling it created instantly – intense joy and sadness all at once, mixed in with a lot of nostalgia. I wanted to laugh and cry and sing along all at the same time, which meant I was mostly blubbering. In the afternoon I had to go and give my mother something. As I walked in and hugged her, I was enveloped by the beautiful smell of Aromatics – her favourite perfume of all time. My whole life flashed before my eyes - not really/just the events, but the feelings. I was comforted. Every fibre of my being felt home.

This got me to thinking - surprise, surprise ;) - about how unbelievably apt the Bible is when saying that our lives must be as a pleasant perfume to those around us. Nothing on earth can connect us more closely to our innermost being, to those “hiding places” where so much of ourselves disappear to, than the smells and the music in our lives, for they are hard-coded into every cell of our body. They become just as much a part of us as our hair

colour - which allows those very instant and intense whole-body experiences when we are confronted with them.

Of course, these associations can be happy or sad, or both at the same time. But, even when it is sadness that overwhelms us, there is still an almost indescribable beauty in the feeling of it. A beauty that can never be fully captured in only talking about it. It is your whole being come alive...set alight...

And this is the effect that our presence should have on the people in our lives. Our being who we are in Christ and our being there should envelop people. Should create in them the same experience as when a favourite song suddenly plays, or a favourite smell unexpectedly wafts in from somewhere. Our presence a whole-body reminder that they are home because they are in God's love.

What a privilege would that not be? Definitely something worth striving for every day of this year. May our lives evermore become the pleasant perfume they were meant to be. May our words become that sentimental song. For then, our lives will have been worth it. "May the words I say and the things I do make my lifesong sing...bring a smile to You. I want to sign Your name to the end of this day, knowing that my heart was true." - Casting Crowns