Fragrance

 As a Perfume

As a perfume doth remain

in the folds where it has lain,

So the thought of you, remaining

Deeply folded in my brain,

Will not leave me, all things leave me

You remain.

Other thoughts may come and go

Other moments I may know

that shall waft me, in their going,

As a breath blown to and fro

Fragrant memories, fragrant memories

Come and go.

Only thoughts of you remain

In my heart where they have lain,

Perfumed thoughts of you, remaining

A hid sweetness, in my brain

Others leave me: all things leave me

You remain.

                 - Arthur Symons

Fragrances can transport you to a place you once were...to a memory of a time long gone.  A smell can remind you of a person you once loved, a place once visited.  A sweet smell can bring forth memories that makes you smile and want to dance again.

You open an old trunk and the musty smell transports you to a time when your grandmother is showing you the treasures of her life.  You remember her touch, her voice, her stories.  Cookies baking in the oven remind you of your mom when you were a child.  Coming in from playing outside and the smell of the cookies waft through the house, waiting to be devoured with a cold glass of milk.

Jesus is a sweet fragrance in our hearts.  When you take of the bread and drink of the wine, do you close your eyes and smell his love for you? Christ's smell is fragrant.  He is the Rose of Sharon,

the Lily of the Valley. 

The closer we walk with him, the sweeter we smell.  His smell invades us, seeps into us and becomes a part of our smell.

What smell do you want people to associate with you?  Is it sweet? Loving? Kind? Merciful?  Oh that my children one day smell a smell and remember me.  My love for them, my pride in them, the joy I have in their laughter.  Christ loves us the same and wants us to smell the sweet smell of his sacrifice for us and marvel in it.  Bathe in it.  Close our eyes and be thankful and gracious each time we take communion and remember the smell of his Love for us.

Fragrances.  Wash over us.  May you take communion in a whole new way now - not only remembering his sacrifice, but the sweet smell of his life and his love for you.

The Fragrance of His Life

Bowing my head, my life

after receiving the bread, the wine

my fingers knitted in prayer

lowering my face, to my hands

the fragrance of his life

washing over me,

in that moment, in that instant

the bread, the wine,

an aroma of his sacrifice

mixing with my tears

falling onto my folded hands

trembling in silent prayer 

                - Raymond A. Foss