This morning I was sitting in our comfy blue chair in the living room next to a toasty fire crackling in the stove praying. As I was praying I stopped and got up to go check if I'd been successful in raising the temperature in the house at all by my fire, and found it to be so. Satisfied I headed back to my spot in the blue chair. As I walked past the stove I glanced at it and noticed the top of it was smoking. Knowing it isn't normal for the top of the stove to smoke I went closer to take a look. It was as I came up next to the stove that I noticed I'd left a wicker basket of poppouri sitting on top of the stove when I started the fire! Okay call me blonde if you want to, but the lesson God revealed to me through this is AWESOME! :-) Attempting to save the basket from fire I snatched it off the very hot stove top and immediately looked at the bottom of it. I found it a bit blackened, but in a far better state than I anticipated it would be! It wasn't at the point of catching on fire yet, but the poppouri in the basket was smoking. I caught a whiff of the poppouri and stopped in my tracks. It smelled AMAZING! I glanced at the stream of smoke spiraling towards the ceiling and breathed deeply again to inhale the scent of the poppouri. The scent was so beautiful, fragrant, sweet, and delightful that I stuck my nose over the smoke ascending from the poppouri and decided to just keep smelling it for a bit. I believe that the heat was actually causing the poppouri to smell even sweeter. Or perhaps the effect of smelling it as the smoke drifted off of it was what really got me. Yet as I stood there smelling it's fragrance I heard the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart, and the words He spoke to me gave me a revelation that sent me back to the blue chair in deep thought and amazement! You see I've been reading through the Old Testament this month, and just recently I've been going through the book of Leviticus, which as most of you know for a lot of people is one of the more difficult books of the Bible to read through! As I've been reading through the specifics of offering after offering, and how they are to be given, and why they are to be given I have come across this phrase numerous times, "It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the
Lord." I have thought about this phrase and wondered about it! When you
think about the things that were being offered up to God by fire you wonder how
it could be a sweet aroma to Him! The wool of sheep, the hair of goats, the
feathers of pigeons and turtledoves burning does not smell that pleasant! In
face I envision it having quite a nasty scent actually! But as I stood there
sniffing the poppouri the Holy Spirit brought revelation to my heart, and this
is what I am beginning to think. Perhaps it wasn't the scent of the animals
being burned that was rising to heaven as a sweet aroma to God at all! Perhaps
the aroma that God was smelling was indeed as sweet as the scent of poppouri
drifting into my nose as these thoughts soaked into my heart. You see perhaps
the aroma that many times in the Old Testament is mentioned as being a sweet
one to the Lord is one that we can still live out in our lives today! Perhaps
the smell that caught the Father's attention and caused Him to look down with
pleasure was the aroma of His people's obedience to Him, their love, their
praise, their worship, their adoration! Pondering this I sniffed the sweet
scent still ascending from the poppouri yet once again, and as I did these
thoughts rang true in my spirit and my heart cried, "Oh God, that my life
would smell like this to YOU!!! That I would live in such a way that You can
know the joy of this sweet aroma drifting off me towards You. That you can turn
Your face towards me and gaze on me with pleasure as You delight in the
fragrance of my life! Father, by Your enabling, empowering Spirit let it be!
Teach me how to live!" The basket of poppouri is now setting cooling on
the table, but the lesson God's spirit brought still lingers on in my heart!
The joy I found in sniffing such a beautiful sweet scent was unique. It brought
a feeling indescribable. If that is what my life smells like to God when I live
in obedience and love before Him, then that is the deepest desire of my heart,
to produce that fragrance for Him!
'Then he shall split it at its wings,
but shall not divide it completely;
and the priest shall burn it on the
altar, on the wood that is on the fire.
It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering
made by fire. a sweet aroma to the Lord.
Leviticus 1:17
