But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing….
2 Corinthians 2:14-15
Good-bye February! Good-bye cold, dreary months of winter. If the groundhog was right, spring should be arriving any day now. I was so thrilled to see the trees in the middle of the road budding to life all pink proclaiming the arrival of the new season just around the corner.
Maybe it was springtime when Jesus mentioned the flowers and preached to His followers about the lilies of the field.
Jesus came to earth to demonstrate just how much God cares and attends to us, not just the flowers and the birds. Our sin separates us from God and His love. Because God is perfect and always does right He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore we, because we are sinful, cannot be in the presence of God. But God loves us so much that He made a way for us to be reconnected with Him through His only son, Jesus. In order to pay the penalty of our sin, Jesus died a horrible and cruel death on the cross. The soldiers even took the beautiful wildflowers in the fields, stripped them down to nakedness leaving only awful thorns, and made a merciless crown which they placed on the head of the King of kings.
Matthew Henry says, “Christ met death in its greatest terror. It was the death of the vilest malefactors. Thus the cross and the shame are put together. God having been dishonoured by the sin of man, Christ made satisfaction by submitting to the greatest disgrace human nature could be loaded with….He wore the crown of thorns which we deserved, that we might wear the crown of glory which he merited.”
Through faith in Jesus we can be made right with God forever, our sins forgiven by His death on the cross!
Jesus’ love and sacrifice for us was a pleasing aroma to God much like the pleasing aroma of the wildflowers in the fields. We are to follow His example and live a life filled with His love being the fragrance of Christ to those around us. We are to smell like Christ and He smelled sweet!
I pray that as you enjoy the blooming flowers of spring and the sweet fragrance they leave in the air that the knowledge of God’s love for you in Christ and His lasting sweet aroma will waft its way all through your life lingering behind in every place you go, with the people whose lives you touch.