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 I must admit that I have not had Aroma Therapy treatment as a means of managing stress. There are times however while photographing roses that I let the aroma waft into my nose. I pause and smell the rose before proceeding with a click of the shutter button. There are other times when I recall the pleasant aroma of a yellow rose.
Yes, there is something worthy about taking a moment to smell roses. There is also something about walking into a men's locker room after a sporting event. With the hoopla of winning a game, one may actually overlook the smell of victory. Another thing that carries a lingering aroma is the smell of ozone at the beach before a rainstorm.
I am reading through the book of 2 Corinthians and in the second chapter, found the thought that as Christians, our lives carry a certain aroma. We are being examined by the world around us, and our deeds and actions show the aroma of Christ who loves us, and through us show others how to live exuberantly and victoriously. At the end of this particular chapter St Paul says that our lives are an Aroma to those who are destined for eternity. To those who are destined for everlasting destruction, our aroma is a rotten smell; and for those destined for eternal life with Christ, our aroma is sweet and refreshing like a newly opened rose on a warm summer morning.
To carry this simile of a rose a bit further, it dawned on me tending a rose bush is hard work. To get a beautiful long-stem rose, one must cut away small shoots and water the ground correctly. It also takes time and attention to keep pests away, and to prune in just the right spots. The same thing happens with our lives over a period of time.
In the sixth chapter of this book, I read how our lives go through thin times and thick times. We may feel sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. We may be flat broke, but because of joy we enrich others. We may be regarded as one of society's unknowns, but are well known to God. We may feel overworked and underpaid, yet our patience and kindness speaks a good reputation. Whenever God wants to do something in response to prayer, he often works through those who have been down the pot-holed roadways of life. To encourage people who have never seen real Christianity at work, he displays us along with our wrinkles, our scars, and our broken lives. This demonstrates beyond question a sweet flavor of faithfulness, one in which Christ uses our lives of kindness and love as an Aroma Therapy to change our corner of the world.
A friend of Jesus,
Gary Kallio
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