Do You Smell Tasty?

I have had the privilege of spending the last three months with my missionary parents who have now been serving in Venezuela for thirty years. They have done tribal church planting and Bible translation among the Pume people... if you're further interested, you can check out their web site here.

Anyway, it has been a joy to hear my parents share in various churches, and a lot has stuck with me, but something in particular is the phrase that the Pume people often use when they're talking about being pleasing and glorifying to the Lord. It is literally translated "smelling tasty and good to God." One of the delights that my parents have had in that work is the beautiful aspects of the language. Often when the Pume people have caught on to a new spiritual concept, they explain it with words that give a fresh meaning and new insight. So... a vivid little phrase like "smelling tasty to God" is just one of the many ways that they spit the "spiritual vocabulary" back out.

In keeping with smelling tasty, I got to hear a different missionary speak this summer, and he posed the question "Do you smell like Christ?" This whole "smelling" business may cause some to be a little "squeamish" but the sense of smell is truly a strong sense for most of us. We can determine pretty quickly whether we appreciate a smell or dislike it.

Smelling good and tasty to God casts a vivid picture in our mind. Does he encounter a pleasing smell or an abhorent one? And whether or not we smell like Christ can probably be answered by whether or not we've spent enough time with Him; whether we've been consumed with the work that He's about; and whether we're concerned with the people that He's concerned about. If we spend too long in a barn, someone will probably tell us that we smell like a barn. When my grampa spent too long in his garden, he'd come back to the house smelling like a dill plant. Is it possible that if we spend enough time with Jesus, studying Jesus, and doing Jesus' work that we'll begin to "smell" like Him?

I'll be the first to say that I love good smells. Fresh-baked bread from my Gramma's kitchen was a much appreciated smell this summer. I also love smelling clean laundry, a good bag of coffee beans, smoke from the chimney in winter. I like good smells so much that I even bought some new perfume today. ...But... nothing could possibly be as delightful as to smell the followers of Christ... and to observe that they smelled as their Savior and that they indeed smelled good and tasty to the Father.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
II Corinthians 2:14-15