Smells can be very powerful!
The olfactory memory is one of the most amazing parts of the body.
There are smells that can take me back to my childhood.
For instance, I love the smell of turkey and dressing cooking on a cool Thanksgiving morning.
It transports me back to when I was a child and my grandmother’s house would have the same fragrance; simpler, happy times!
The smell of Old Spice reminds me of my dad; mothballs remind me of Grandma Swanson’s house.
Over in the pasture next door is a pile of chicken house litter.
Its odor is quite pungent; it really reeks!
Sometime in the future they’ll come and spread it over the pasture, and then the smell will get worse.
It’ll take some rain to finally make the smell go away; until then, we pray to be upwind!
This odor creates a memory in Linda.
She grew up living behind and working in the chicken houses and so there is a mix of memories, mostly of working in them.
Each of us has our own little smell.
After working outside Linda says I smell swansony, an odor that I’m totally oblivious to!
The Bible has several references to smell.
Jacob dressed up in his brother Esau’s clothing and tricked his dad into thinking he was the brother!
And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: “Surely, the smell of my son
Is like the smell of a field which the LORD has blessed.” Gen 27:27
Jacob ended up with Esau’s blessing because of smell!
Our sin stinks before God.
It is written dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment and cause it to give off a foul odor; so does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor. Eccl 10:1
It is smell that also pleases God; Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. Eph 5:2
When you take Jesus as your Savior, it smells great to God. It becomes a memory for Him and you will not be forgotten!