Aroma is the word for a fragrant scent, one that pleases the nose in a way that makes you lick your lips. Unlike its foul-smelling cousin the odor, an aroma smells but never stinks. 

One day I was driving with my windows cracked open, and all of a sudden I got a whiff of a nostalgic smell from childhood. Shashlik with freshly crushed coriander prepared by loving hands with tender care, roasting over the fire and releasing an aromatic fragrance throughout the neighborhood. Do you smell that? My mouth started to water. The smell of childhood, the warmth, the joy, the comfort, the care, the love of a family all around, and the memories. Suddenly, I wanted to go back in time and relive that moment. The smell is not what is remembered but what it carries. 

Certain smells attract us to a specific place or thing. Smells represent so many different attractions that either draw us in or push us away. No wonder companies create such unique fragrance mixtures in the perfume to attract people to the smell that will leave us attached to the fragrance and coming back for more. The fragrance you wear leaves an impression to those you are around. Whether it is sweet, airy, bold, or spicy. Smells really do attach themselves to memories that leave off a pleasing aroma or a foul stench.  

In 2 Corinthians 2:15 it says, “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” 

We are the smell of Christ carrying the hope of the gospel to the dead places around us releasing a fragrant smell of life. We are the life-giving perfume that attracts and draws in. 

God is attracted to a soothing aroma. An aroma that pleases Him. The sacrifice of a burning offering releases an incense that rises up to the Lord. What attracts God is not the fragrance itself but the representation of the action. 

When God asked of an offering, and it was done out of a pure heart, He was pleased with it. The Israelites started to give offerings in vain and the Lord said He doesn’t need any more of their offerings. Because they did it out of an empty heart. The Lord is pleased when we give our heart and love for Him not because we have to. The woman that poured out all the perfume over Jesus’s feet because of her love for Him, not caring how much the perfume costs and not even questioning, was such a pleasing aroma to the Lord. He was so pleased with it and it moved His heart. Here we see that it wasn’t the fragrant smell that the Lord was pleased with, but more so the act of her worship to Him. The love she represented in that moment was something that Jesus was savoring. She was not there to prove something or give to get something in return. Matthew 26:6-13 

It is not to give away in expectation to receive something back, but rather giving away to show our love and devotion to Him, that is a place of fellowship. God doesn’t want our sacrifice of time, finances and energy that have no value. He says to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to the Lord. He wants all of us, our true worship, our full surrender which is holy and pleasing to God. Romans 12:2  

When the sacrifice was offered as an atonement it restored the fellowship with man. When man offered an animal as a sacrifice, they had atonement and fellowship was brought back again. When no sacrifice was made for their sin, the fellowship with God was broken because the only way to relationship with God was through atonement. When a sacrifice was burning and it was releasing an aroma, it pleased the Lord and moved His heart back to man.   

The most pleasing sacrifice ever done was the sacrifice of Jesus. This restored relationship with the Father. The atonement was perfect and pleasing to God. 

God always desired relationship and he made a way through the cross. Jesus came as the final atonement once and for all to restore broken fellowship- the final bridge for salvation and redemption. 

We now have access to this beautiful sacrifice beyond the veil. 

How can we minister unto the Lord and release a pleasing Aroma? 

Some different ways is through worship, through prayer, through repentance, and through love. When we lay our lives down in true surrender, we release a fragrance that moves Gods heart.  

I pray that you experience that pure intimacy with the Lord, the unbroken fellowship, and take part of the sacrifice of the Lamb, so that you would carry the fragrance of Christ and be a pleasing aroma to this world in Jesus’s Name!