Fragrances of Love

The long and hot summer days are coming to an end for the year. The fragrance of the changing season was brought along by the likely cool breeze in the early morning and a little later after the sun dropdown on the horizon.

By definition, before moving on, fragrance means a sweet or pleasant smell. It can be related to certain scenery or scent which goes along with flow of time and place. It is more of a combination of good aroma like bouquet of roses.

While the leaves of most trees are turning yellow before their final fall, there’s a tree whose thick and greenery had shaded its upcoming budding flower. The flowers are tiny yet covered almost the entire tree when it fully bloomed.

During our dating days, with my wife, we often walked several distance in the vicinity of our neighborhood. It was mostly that short moment before my eyes really glued to the books containing theory of thinkers where I’d analyses their thoughts and try fitting-in with the happening world politics.

Our evening walks where we, sometimes, shyly hold hands are the cherished moments for us. Our walks, as I relate to it, were along the walkways where the fragrance of the blooming tree spread over the surrounding area. It becomes the symbolic fragrance of intense love during the period.

Every year, I set my all my sense to the trees which are tucked between several species of other trees. The fragrance or aroma, with a deep intruding smell, may not mean anything to other residents yet it means a lot to me.

As the season settled in again this year, I’d merrily breathe in the aroma in the morning and evening breeze. There are days I deeply glanced at the tree waiting for them to spread their aroma of my younger self once again. And that fragrance of love gives me more of the zeal for living even in my hard times.

Well, you know by now, it’s not the tree I like but it’s more of the memories it brings back with its fragrance of our cherished moments. It’s for the fragrance, which reminded me of the intense love we’d shared, and a good reminder of the good times for us. In very short, marriage is the process of diffusing the fragrance of knowledge and interest in loving each other.

In that way, not necessarily its fragrance, we all have something which arouse our melancholic self or the good times we’ve cherished. In my case, we’re blessed we can revisit the scene and recreate the magic.

However, there are certain fragrances which are not as sweet as they seem to be. It however, is still an aroma of the bygone moments which might be better ignored or voluntarily ignored by some.

In our everyday life, we can’t bloom the whole season but our blooming fragrance can be a reminder of God’s love to the needy who may have felt defeated in life. There are people who only smell the aroma of death, like the prisoners of ancient Rome during which the apostle Paul wrote his letters to Corinthians. And to them an act of random kindness and sharing our testimony can become a lifeline for them.

Diverse Fragrances of Life:

In my childhood days, we worked in the fields as a family to sustain our living. Working in the midst of the pungent and muddy terrain of the paddy fields are hard to forget. It’s not because of the pleasant condition but of the hard work we’d paid for our living. Yet the pungent smell becomes the Fragrance of Life.

One period we cherished the most is the harvesting season; harvest season has its sweet fragrance, which visits my nostril every year till now. Working and playing with the haystack are joyous moments we cherished. When it’s for harvesting, I can sense the smell of harvest from far away land.

My father’s cigarette smelled shirts reminded me of his love back in the days. I’d wear it among friends proudly, thinking, I’d looked good too as my father did. I love it because my father looks good in them. It was a fragrance of love, that day, for me in my Sunday school class as I still knew it today.

Unlikely Fragrances of Life:

The smell of the fumigating gas in the hospital during my stays is hard to call it as pleasant. However, when thinking in other way, there are tons of people who are deprived of the privilege, as in my village, it can be counted as sweet fragrance.

The love and care I get during my long stays make fumigating smell as a fragrance of love. When the fumigated room becomes the place for hearing more of God’s word, and leaving it with better health the fumigating gas could even to fragrances.

In the time of hardships and sufferings, our fragrances of love was extracted the most for the one whom we care. We all wanted sweet fragrances in life, however, our real fragrances of love was best known in unwelcomed situations, as I knew it.

In contrast to this, Christmas time smells of baked cakes and joyous mood filled the air, for us Christians. The sad part is that people often ended up themselves enjoying the feast rather than focusing on the gospel of Jesus Christ to save the world. When taken together, it’s all the fragrance of love which the organizers are trying to spread.

We cant’t change the time of our appearance in people’s life yet the fragrance we bring along in their life can be of love or bitterness. what does we remind them of in their spiritual journey? We are to help each other in our spiritual journey as we rely on the sovereignty of God.

Spreading Fragrance of Love:

Now we come to the most important part of it. What kind of fragrance we wanted to get and we wanted to spread. What kind of fragrances do people smell from you? Take some time by yourself and you’ll know it. Our sufferings are one way of strengthening our fragrance.

We are to spread fragrance of the love. Like it or not, we’re moving around; we’re talking around, and we’re typing around. When we’re around, what kind of fragrance do we people smell? We are the fragrance of Christ to God. (2 Cor. 2:15) In some way, we can be the reminder of the fragrance of God’s love to the lost.

As the fragrance of Christ, we are now the aroma of life; being saved from the perishing. In every place we are to spread the fragrance of the Love of Christ. Should we bring hope to the perishing, the downtrodden, we’d be spreading the fragrance of love.

The fragrance of Christ to us is the fragrance of love. As such we can keep on spreading the fragrance of Christ’s love in the abiding grace of God.