A Fragrant Mother's Day Gift

Yesterday, for Mother's Day my granddaughter was so excited to hand me the gift she had picked out for me with her mother.
It was a lovely fragrance diffuser, equally lovely packaged. The fragrance - Sweet Pea.

I know aromatherapy is all the fad these days as an alternative medical practice with a scent to cure every condition, but I am still on the sceptic side.
What I do know, however, is that medical science has proven that scents have a direct connection to our brain as the most effective memory trigger.

Considering that, it would follow that different scents would trigger different memories for different people and therefore one scent would not have the same effect on everyone.

Triggering certain memories , triggers our emotions, and emotions determine how we feel .... so scents can affect our well being and therefore also our behaviour or actions.

Some time ago my daughter gave me a jar containing a scented candle. It was Sweet Pea, from the White Barn candle Co. and the scent to me was very fragrant. I put the jar by my bed so I could enjoy the scent when I lay awake at night unable to sleep.
What I discovered was that when I breathed deep of the lovely scent, I soon relaxed and drifted off into a restful sleep.
Sweet Peas have always been my favorite flower from the time I, as a small child, remember my Mom growing them. I could never get enough of their intoxicatingly sweet scent!
So, it is not really a stretch that the scent would trigger pleasant childhood memories and relax my mind to let me sleep.

I had just recently told my daughter how much I enjoyed the Sweet Pea scent of that candle jar and that is why when my daughter and granddaughter found the Sweet Pea fragrance dispenser, they decided it was exactly what I would enjoy!

This morning , I was thinking about how scents can move us to act or behave in a certain way because of what they cause us to remember, and I was reminded that we are truly made in God's image.
And being made in His image means that we are capable of understanding HIM.

He loved fragrances long before we did!
He put endless fragrances into the world He created.
He commanded the Israelites to make a fragrant perfume to use in their sacrifices. He would not accept them without it!

In His creation the scents are a foreshadowing of the fragrance of Jesus - that was so precious to God - His very favorite smell!!!

When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, we are covered with His scent.
Then , when God looks at us , His memory is triggered by our fragrance.... He remembers Jesus and His sacrifice and He remembers to act on our behalf!
How beautiful is that picture !!!

2Co 2:15 "For we are to God the fragrance of Christ."

Jesus is the Word made flesh according to John 1:1, and when we spread the knowledge of Him through our words and life we spread His fragrance into the world -- we are the diffusers.

2Co 2:14 "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place."

"Lord, let me be a diffuser of Your Fragrance to the world around me!"

****************************