AROMATICS

Hello there dear gist partner 🤗. 

How farest thou this fair day? Tis mine wish that thou farest well and that The Lord be thine helper always. 

Welcome to today's converse😉. 

So a couple of weeks ago, I read something in the Bible that really struck me and I thought to share. My first attempt to explain it to a friend was a woeful disaster so here's hoping that this is a better attempt. 

But before that, a quick travel down memory lane. 

When I was in Secondary School, our Vice Principal had one distinguishing feature, among others: she could never sneak up on anyone. This was not because she wasn't stealthy or would shout or anything, this was because she had a really notable fragrance; whenever she would be coming upstairs, while she was about halfway up the stairs, her fragrance would already precede her; everyone loitering around to the staircase on either side would run back to class and the entire student body upstairs would begin to rearrange themselves back to proper studenthood because if she caught you moving mad, your body go tell you. 

Why did I randomly stay and think of my old VP's fragrance? 

Because in 2 Corinthians ‭2:15 says: "For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] to God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing."(AMP)

When I read this verse, what stood out for me is that I am the fragrance of Christ, in fact the Bible qualifies the fragrance as "sweet". That means that just like my old VP's perfume, I should be announcing Jesus. When God wants to announce appearance in a place, He should be able to send me there and when I show up there, there should be a distinct fragrance of God evident in all that I do. So, when people come in contact with me, when they interact with me, they must be left with the knowledge of something distinct that I carry –the fragrance of God. God must be so evident in me that people interacting with me can see my good works and praise my Father in Heaven (Matthew 5:16). 

Then there's the other side to it: that this fragrance is unto God. So whenever God looks at my life, there must be a sweet aroma ascending to please His nostrils from my life. God should derive pleasure from my life, every time He "checks in" on me, which is always by the way, seeing how I'm living should leave a perma-grin on His face.

And as I continued to think on the matter, I thought of how I feel whenever I come across a bad smell; I'm almost always holding my breath to prevent me from perceiving too much of the smell all the while trying my best to leave the environment where that smell is prevalent. And then I thought of all the times when I've come in contact with certain people and I'm literally trying to run away from them because of their behaviour and how when I leave them, I'm hoping never to come in contact with their wahala again; as I thought about this, my heart was opened up to a cry: that I do not chase people away from God because of their contact with me; my life should not be a "God-repellant" to people, instead, like nectar to bees, my life should become so attractive that people are drawn to God because they see me. 

The consciousness that I am a fragrance is one I never want to lose, and I pray that you don't too, and may God help us that this consciousness is reflected in our lives. 

NLS HOT GIST: We resumed lectures this week. We'll have four more weeks of lectures before we'll be left to our devices to prepare for Bar Finals and write the exams. Something really endearing happened to me yesterday. I was coming back from class looking as tired as I felt and a girl I've never interacted with her before, didn't even know her at all, just randomly came to me and began to encourage me. It was such a thoughtful gesture that gave me a very needed emotional boost –never underestimate the power of seemingly little words of encouragement, they go a long way!

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned. May God help us to only release sweet fragrance, to Him and those around us too. 

See you next week!

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. It's my friend Daniel's birthday today. Daniel is one of the driving forces behind the blog, he's featured here twice already, please say a prayer of blessing over his life whenever you see this. Thank you.