Heavenly Fragrance

The word "Fragrant" means a pleasing scent, a pleasant odor.  When I think of the word fragrant, I immediately think of a beautiful rose.

The other day I was outside and in the air was this wonderful smell.  It was sweet and the aroma seemed to permeate the entire area around me.  The fragrance was coming from a honeysuckle vine.  I wish I could have bottled that exact smell in order to release a tiny bit into my kitchen each day...Most of us love to smell a pleasing odor.

I was outside again yesterday trying to get part of the front lawn mowed before it rained.  I could still slightly smell the honeysuckle, but there was a stronger foul odor in the air as well.  The closer I got toward the street, the worse the smell was.  I looked over toward our neighbor's driveway and I saw a squirrel that was dead.  I'm guessing that it had been hit by a car several days ago.  The smell was horrible and I could not believe that this offensive odor had practically replaced that beautiful sweet smell that I had enjoyed just days before. 

In the scripture 2 Corinthians 2:14 it says that as we grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ we become a sweet odor to others.  We become a fragrance others want to enjoy and be with.

It made me stop and think, Do I have a sweet fragrance? Do others want to be around me?  Do my family and friends smell the freshness of my spirit? Do I have the fragrance of Jesus Christ?

Or......In my life do I have a smell that is offensive to others, does my attitude stink, do I have an unpleasant personality that might cause my family and friends to run the opposite direction? 

I certainly hope that I allow the fragrance within me to be as sweet as the honeysuckle I smelled days before.  It is my desire to grow in God's word and to allow His sweetness to grow even sweeter in my spirit.  I want to be a person that shares the fragrance of God with others.