My daughter broke a bottle of perfume in the downstairs bathroom the other day. She cleaned it up, but the perfume smell remains.
It's a really small bathroom too, so the smell is VERY strong. Fortunately, it's a nice perfume.
But it made me think of a Bible story, found in Mark 14:
3 While Jesus was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head.
4 Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? 5 It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to Me. 7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have Me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on My body beforehand to prepare for My burial. 9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Can you imagine the fragrance that must have filled the room when this unnamed woman broke a whole jar of perfume? (Maybe THAT'S why those present were rebuking her...)
But what she did was an outward and very physical sign of what was inside her heart, which was a desire to honor Jesus.
How would it be if the fragrance of my own heart, so to speak, were filling this room? What would people sense if my own love for Jesus were phyiscally present every day, like the smell of that perfume lingering in my bathroom?
In 2nd Corinthians 2:14-15 Paul writes:
"But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God."
I just pray that my own life's fragrance is pleasing to God.
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