Something Smells Good!

An unfamiliar car pulled in next to us in the church parking lot. It seemed to be full of white-haired ladies. As they trailed along the walk on this cold, winter-feeling evening, they reminded me of little snowbirds bobbing their way into the church. Later, as my husband announced, “Sue has a song for us tonight,” introducing our own sprightly 80-something who had invited the visitors, she said, “My friends from Willow Creek Apartments are going to sing with me.” They were from her Bible Study group.

A quartet! What a treat, I thought as they made their way to the platform. The ladies were introduced, along with their respective parts: soprano, alto, tenor and, I believe, contralto. Suddenly the church was filled with sweet, ethereal music. Soft, tremulous voices blended in soothing harmony like a refreshing breeze after the robust enthusiasm of our spirited song service. I would compare it later to “a sweet smelling savor” mentioned in our guest speaker’s message that would follow.

Various lay speakers had been scheduled for mid-week service under my husband’s leadership, as our church adjusted to our pastor’s absence during his recuperation. Tonight it was a lady preacher I had never heard, a regular member of the congregation who could not attend on Sundays due to the outside ministries she shared with her husband. Her peppery style and irrepressible joy were a bubbling brook, tumbling and overtaking her words in a rush of Holy Ghost zeal as she gave her charge of commitment to the attentive listeners.

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life,” she read from II Corinthians 2:15-16.

Previously, others’ prayer requests were put on hold as, in wisdom and compassion, the leader had us stop and pray immediately for an urgent plea for a recent convert who was being pulled into temptation. The last part of verse 16 asks, “And who is sufficient for these things?” as Paul stresses the magnitude of our responsibility and the significance of our influence on others and their eternal destinies. May we always be the fragrance of Christ to them!