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Listen while you read: "Angels We Have Heard On High"1
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I love the feast for the senses that comes with the holiday season, don't you? All five of the senses are fully engaged in a way that is like no other time of the year. Here's a short list of such sense stimulators:
- Sight: red and green and silver and gold Christmas tree ornaments, lights, and other sparkling decorations to delight our eyes.
- Hearing: Christmas bells and Christmas carols to fill the air with jubilant sounds.
- Touch: frosty snow and prickly wreaths to bring a tactile element to the celebration.
- Taste: spiced cider, gingerbread, and candy canes to bring a nostalgic flavour to the season.
- Smell: freshly-cut Christmas greenery, wafting smells from the kitchen, and glowing candles to evoke childhood memories.
We often consider vision and hearing to be the "big boys" of our sensory world. It is true that deficits in these two areas require the greatest adaptation and accommodation for people to function well in daily life. But let's focus for a bit on our sense of smell — a truly underrated stimulus, in my opinion. I was intensely aware of this sometimes-overlooked sense as I often walked around the lake in our neighbourhood park this summer. The mixed fragrances of evergreen trees and nearby flower gardens lingering in the summer air were a sensory delight.
How fitting, then, it is to remember during the holiday season that fragrant frankincense was one of the gifts given to the baby Jesus by the magi. Though Scripture does not give such a detail, tradition tells us that frankincense is symbolic, denoting Jesus' divinity.
Fragrance is truly important to God, its Creator. From the earliest Old Testament times, God expressed His pleasure in the "pleasing aroma" of sacrifices offered as an indication of repentance of sin or thankfulness for His blessings. Mary (not Jesus' mother) offered her most precious gift when she broke her bottle of perfume to anoint Jesus' feet.
John 12:3 – Then Mary took a twelve-ounce jar of expensive perfume made from essence of nard, and she anointed Jesus' feet with it, wiping his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance. (NLT)
The apostle Paul describes our everyday lives as bringing pleasure to God.
2 Corinthians 2:15a – Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. (NLT)
How does this work in our everyday, practical lives? Paul tells us:
Romans 12:1 – And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. (NLT)
Something to consider: Our lives of obedience bring God much pleasure. Let's live that way.
Prayer: O Lord, may our lives of obedient sacrifice bring great pleasure to You as a Christ-like fragrance. Amen.
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About the author:
Gail Lundquist <gail10833@gmail.com>
Beaverton, Oregon, USA
Send your feedback to the author
Thank you, Gail. May we always exude a Christ-like fragrance!
Thanks for the encouraging thoughts, Gail. Have a Merry Christmas.
Thank you for your beautiful WORD picture of God’s greatest blessing.
(Texas)
Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us today.
Blessings.
Gail, thanks again for writing down your good observations to encourage and remind us of important truths from scriptures.
Thank you for your “sweet” devotional and reminders.
Hope you have a Merry Christmas and keep writing.
Thank you, Gail, for this beautiful and very descriptive devotional today. God certainly created us with a number of very important senses, and they sure do come to life more than ever at this very Holy season. Blessings for these writings you do and keep enjoying the “senses” of the season.
Gail, I was blessed by your beautiful words of truth this morning. Fragrances are a major part of our Christmas blessings. Candles burning when guests arrive, cinnamon covered pinecones, and coffee brewing to warm our hearts, as we sit across the table from those we love most. Thanks for stirring my awareness of the God given blessing of smell. May we be a fragrance to our father in heaven.
‘Thanks for sharing.
Hello Gail,
I have to respond to this one. I have no sense of smell. I think it affects my taste buds too. My mother always told me that I wouldn’t be able to keep house because I wouldn’t be able to smell if something was stinking somewhere.
I became licensed in real estate, and I have always told clients that if we were looking at houses, and they smelled something, they would have to tell me because I wouldn’t be able to smell it. During the pandemic when people were buying houses sight unseen, I would always have to bring another person with me to make sure the house passed the sniff test.
And I will never have anything propane because of it.
One clear advantage that I have is that when I worked as a resident care worker, when people were smelling at their worst, it never had any effect on the care I gave them.
Also I can visit in homes and help people that other people don’t want to be around because of the smell.
I hope you have a truly blessed Christmas season!
Thank-you.