"Most of our memories come from the nose," writes poet Whitney Albright. Smell is also thought to be the oldest sense, and it is thousands of times more sensitive than our other senses. One whiff of something can bring us back decades in our minds to our childhood, and we are just about to enter into the season of great smells, beginning with Thanksgiving and extending through Christmas. Ginger, balsam, cinnamon, apples, turkeys roasting, candles burning ...

I thought about this recently because someone came into my office and said, "I knew you were here; I smelled your perfume." 1 remember the first day I smelled this perfume. A woman walked into a meeting 1 was attended about twenty years ago and I thought, "I want to smell like that!" She smelled. ~ . clean and sort of soapy. And so for the last twenty years and counting, 1 smell ... clean and sort of soapy.
This connection with scent is what makes one simple bible verse absolutely astonishing to me: "For you are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing," 2 Cor 2: 15. We are the aroma of Christ 10 God? We remind God of Christ? We connect a memory pathway in the divine imagination that somehow sees us and also sees Christ? How is this possible?

In our Rite 1 Eucharistic Prayer I (BCP 336), the priest prays on behalf of the people gathered: "We offer and present unto thee, 0 Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice unto thee." We are a living sacrifice, but do you recall the original method of sacrificial offering? Animals, incense and other offerings were brought before God and burned. The smoke, like prayer, would travel upwards to where they believed God dwelled. The smell of the sacrifice became the offering that reached heaven.

What sort of 'aroma' does your life give off? Our actions, our words, and all the things we give away, or give off or give up ... this has become the 'incense' that lifts its invisible tendrils towards heaven. As God 'smells' the 'aroma' of our lives, as he receives the incense of our life offering, he 're-members'-puts together-the body of Christ. Each one of us is a member of the Body, each one of us has been given a unique and blessed gift of our lives to share with others on earth. The 'fragrance' of that offering is our thanksgiving, our praise, and our way of telling God that we also remember-we recall-the sacrifice that Christ made on our behalf on the cross of Calvary.

So wouldn't it be wonderful if we understood that the work we do, the tithe we offer, the time we share with others, and the love we give away becomes like a trail of scent that we leave behind us? Wouldn't it be sort of weird and wonderful if people said to you "Oh wow, you smell like Jesus! Your life reminds me of Jesus!" What does the 'fragrance' of your life say about you? What is the 'incense' that you offer up to God as a sacrifice and as a remembrance of Christ?

I wish you all the blessings of a season of thankfulness and I pray that you are surrounded not only by the scents and memories that you love best, but also by the people who you love best. Love them back and surround them with the fragrance of Christ.