What Does Serving Smell Like?

Earlier this year,  I wrote in this blog about the fact that at Christmas 2017 my daughter Heather gave me a gift that keeps on giving for the whole year.  Each week,  a web site emails  a question to me that I answer.   Sometimes,  the questions are difficult for me to answer.   Always, the question are interesting.     A few weeks ago, the question of the week was this:   What are your favorite smells?     Of all of my senses,  I suppose my sense of smell is the least developed largely due to the fact that I suffer with chronic sinus issues.    For days, I pondered what were my favorite smells.

That question caused  another question to rise up within me:   What does serving Christ smell like?   The gospels give us a few examples of what serving smells like.  As Jesus visited in the home of Mary and Martha, serving smelled like a fresh cooked meal for Martha.    While Matthew, Mark, and Luke tells us about the smell of bread and wine at the Passover meal,  the writer of the gospel of John tells us about the smell of stinking feet as Jesus served the disciples by washing their feet after a long day on the dusty roads around Jerusalem.  For a little boy,  serving Christ smelled like loaves and fishes as he gave what he had for Jesus to fed thousands of people. 

What does serving Christ smell like today?    It smells like hamburgers or hotdogs as a church group feeds hungry folks on the streets of Charlotte on a Sunday night.    It smells like clean clothes as a woman washes the dirty underclothes of a boy who did not bring enough clothes on his first mission trip with a church group.    Serving Christ smells like sawdust and freshly cut lumber as a group helps repair a home for a family whose home was seriously damaged by hurricaine waters.     Serving Christ smells like warm biscuits and fried chicken made with the loving hands of a woman who wants to offer care to a neighbor who just lost a loved one. 

What does serving Christ smell like?   It smells like all these things, and much more.    When those who love Christ do such things,  I believe the aroma of their serving is like incense given  as prayers and offerings to almighty God.   Have a joy-filled week.-    Pastor Randy Wall

Prayer:    O God,  I thank you for the priviledge to serve knowing that I serve you as I serve others.  Give me open eyes and an open heart to see the countless ways around me to serve;  through the One who came to serve and give His life for many, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.