AuburnChick's Adventures

I love Sundays.  My family has finally gotten back into the routine of attending church, and boy does God reward our attendance.

The pastors at my church are presenting a series of sermons about the sacrifices required in the Old Testament.  Studying the older rituals helps one to better understand Christ’s sacrifice.

One of the things that stuck out to me today was the role that smell plays in our sacrifices.  Leviticus 2:9 says, “He shall take out the memorial portion from the grain offering and burn it on the altar as an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.”  When God smelled the aroma, He remembered His people and how much He loved them.  More importantly, He saw through this to the heart of the giver.

As I sat and listened, I couldn’t help but think about our sense of smell and just how a powerful of a tool it is.  Oftentimes, a certain aroma will take us back to a moment in time.  My pastor listed ten of his favorite smells…some of which were a bit odd but meaningful to him.  I thought it would be fun to list mine.

1. The smell of my children, when they were babies, freshly bathed – After the rice cereal, drool, and other yucky stuff had been cleaned off, they emerged as the sweetest smelling things on earth.
2. Freshly mowed grass – I remember growing up and laying in the grass after it had been mowed.  Boy did I love the fresh smell.
3. Puppy breath – There’s nothing sweeter or more innocent than puppy breath.
4. Leaves burning – I always associate this with growing up in a small town and the change from summer to fall…football season and Christmas.
5. Chaps cologne – When I was in high school, some of the guys used to wear this.  Smelling it today takes me back to a time of innocence…crushes that never amounted to anything…writing I Love So-and-So on my notebooks.
6. The ocean – When I was a teenager, we used to go to the beach for Spring Break and several times during the summer.  I used to get up early and walk along the shore, and I just loved the smell.  It relaxed me.  We live near the beach now, and the smell never gets old.
7. Dark, rich soil – The rare times that I get out and garden, I’m always amazed that I’ve forgotten the wonderful smell of dirt.  It has to be the dark kind, though…not that sandy stuff that gets passed off as soil.
8. A brand new jig-saw puzzle – Ok…a little strange, I know, but I love putting puzzles together, and the smell of a new box gets me excited at the challenge that awaits me.
9. A new car – What an amazing smell!  It’s clean and brand new.  Who doesn’t like this smell?
10. My dogs when I pay for them to be bathed at the boarding facility – I need to observe how they wash my dogs, because they come home smelling so good, that I could sit for hours with my nose nuzzled up to their necks.

What are some of your favorite aromas?

Filed under: This-n-That | Tagged: Christianity, sacrifice, smell |