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February 13, 2018

A Sweet Scent on Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day is just one day away, and while it isn’t categorized as a “major” holiday like Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, it is still a holiday.  And holidays have this strange ability to highlight in our hearts all that we’re not as opposed to all that we are, or all that we don’t have as opposed to all that we do.

For instance, on Christmas, we can tend to focus on all the gifts that we don’t have as opposed to all the gifts we do.  Or on Thanksgiving we can dwell on who isn’t around our table as opposed to who is.  And on Valentine’s Day, we can focus on the ways we aren’t loved instead of the ways we most certainly are.  And you don’t have to be intentionally or unintentionally celebrating Valentine’s Day to feel this way.  Certain feelings just pop up uninvited, in untimely places – like passing the card aisle at the grocery store.  Or overhearing a conversation about what so-and-so is doing on Valentine’s Day and comparing your ho-hum schedule.  Or listening to how so-and-so’s husband brought her a card, flowers, and a gift while cooking the whole family a special dinner, while your husband forgot the whole darn day even existed.

But let me offer a word of hope and encouragement for the day of the celebration of love that is just one day around the corner.  While romantic love is a part of the celebration of Valentine’s Day, it certainly does not make up the whole.  It is simply a side course to the main course of the all-consuming, life-creating, soul-sustaining love of God.

It is a love that enables us to walk confidently through any and every life circumstance, no matter if our hearts are rejoicing or breaking.  And that is the love I want to focus on this Valentine’s Day.

When I was in college, my grandmother sent me a bookmark with these words on it: “You are a fragrance of God to those who are in need and a sweet aroma of the one of God in this place.”  The words are a paraphrase of 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 which read, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.  For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.”

It is a bookmark I still have and use, and the words on it hold a special place in my heart.

But while I have had the bookmark for over twenty years now, the words took on new and special meaning a few weeks ago.

My daughter Caroline, the same daughter from last week’s blog (click here to read more), came home a few weeks ago and said, “Mom, I’ve made a new friend, and I told her about Jesus, but I don’t know if she has a Bible.  Can I get her a Bible and give it to her?”

After saying “Yes!” as fast as I could, I drove Caroline to the store and helped her select a Bible for her new friend.  As she brought it home and time wrapping her gift, I thought, “Why don’t I do this myself more often?  With my friends, with the people God brings across my path on a day in, day out basis, why am I not more bold and purposeful about sharing and spreading the beautiful fragrance of Christ?”  Because, really, let’s face it – is there any other fragrance sweeter, any other expression of love truer, than telling our friends about the ultimate love that will hold them and ground them and never let them go, no matter what in life they will walk through?

Several days after Caroline bought the Bible and journal for her new friend, I went to a store to return some perfume I received as a gift for Christmas.  The saleswoman in the store could not have been more helpful or kind.  She spent time with me helping me select a new fragrance and then showed me how to apply it so that it would last.  First, she had me wash my hands, then she applied the scent to my wrists and tops of my hands, and then finally, she massaged lotion onto my hands that was the same scent as the perfume.  The lotion, she explained, was the key that would lock in the scent.  (Who knew there were so many steps to applying perfume?!)

And she was right.  The rest of the day, every time I used my hands to gesture, emphasize, “speak,” or serve in one way or another, a sweet fragrance greeted my nose.  I have never enjoyed the scent of my hands more.  And it was a scent that lasted all day.

And I thought, “Isn’t this how my life in Christ should be?”  Every time we use our hands in His Name, there is a fragrance, a scent of His unfailing love.  Every time we “speak,” a scent wafts up to the nose of the one who is listening, and we have an opportunity to “speak” of Christ, simply by the fragrance of our hands.

So here is my challenge to us this Valentine’s Day: instead of focusing on all that we’re not, let’s focus on all that we are.  And if you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, two things are clear: number one, you are loved with a love that will not let you go.  And more than that, you are Christ’s beloved.  Because as we all know deep down in our hearts, it’s one thing to be loved, but it’s another thing to be someone’s beloved, cherished as the apple of their eye.  And in Christ, we have that confidence: we are the beloved of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And number two: as His beloved, you are His fragrance.  And wherever you go, you spread the sweet aroma of Him, His fragrance in every place.

So here’s the practical part of my challenge: after knowing who you are, purposefully go and be that fragrance in someone’s life.  Because someone in your path today, this week, needs the Word of God, calling them, reminding them, telling them that through relationship with Christ, they are Christ’s beloved too.  So like Caroline, as an expression of great love towards a friend, give someone a Bible, the greatest love letter of all time.  It might feel awkward, it might feel weird, you might wonder if your relationship with that person will ever be the same, but why would you and I ever withhold a fragrance from someone’s life that can change them forever from the inside out?

Isaiah 55:10-11 reminds us, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

God’s Word does notin fact cannot, return void or empty.  It will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.  Caroline gave her friend a Bible like this – it’s a great option for adults or children.  And if you aren’t sure who in your life to give God’s Word to, just ask.  Ask the Lord to show you exactly who the person is, and wait on His perfect timing this Valentine’s Day.  I think you will be amazed at just how specifically and clearly He answers.

And as you wait this week and give your hands in loving service to be the fragrance of Christ to someone else, that same sweet fragrance will come in and refresh and restore your own soul every time the are not’s and the have not’s hit you unawares.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
    making wise the simple.
 The precepts of the Lord are right,
    giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
    giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure,
    enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
    and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold,
    than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
    than honey from the honeycomb.
By them your servant is warned;
    in keeping them there is great reward.

Psalm 19:7-11

Happy Valentine’s Day to you, our Great, Good God’s beloved.