During my tenure at Mercedes Benz I was to learn why they are designed like
no other car in the world. Attention to detail both in design and assembly,
along with a rigid system of parts quality, all add up to make a Mercedes Benz
motorcar. From being engineered so that it can be worked on easier, notice I
didn’t day easily, to a parts rejection system like no other, some will accept
only a few rejects in 10,000, to Mercedes Benz that will only pass if it is per
million. Built to go at high speeds and sustain them, and to stop from those
speeds, too, their ride quality is like other. Others try to imitate, and can
come close, maybe even surpass in some small area, but none compare overall to
the Mercedes Benz motorcar. None.
But as a young service advisor, I noted on the newer cars, that each one
had a distinct odor. Now who doesn’t like to open the door of a new car for
that new car smell, and if it has leather, all the better. But each Mercedes
Benz had its own odor, a signature of sorts, never mentioned it until reading
about the woman in charge of interior odors in engineering. They don’t miss a
thing, and they had designed a certain fragrance for each model, you need to
smell each one to see what I mean, but you could blindfold me and sit me in each
car, and I could tell you what model it was, and in some cases what year. They
were that distinct! Who else but those crafty, hard core, emotionless Germans
would dare to do such a thing, and then pull it off. Way beyond the new car
smell, some cars may look like a Mercedes Benz, and some cars may drive like
one, but no other car on the road will smell like one.
Being Christmas time, many seasonal smells permeate the air. From fresh
cut Christmas tree, let your plastic not so fantastic tree do that, to turkey
dinner on Christmas, to apple pies baking, and the smell of monkey bread and the
cinnamon, it’s beginning to smell a lot like Christmas everywhere I go. The
sights and sounds are there, from the Salvation Army bell ringers, to the cash
registers ringing up sales, from the sounds of Christmas caroles in stores, note
they are not holiday caroles, to the sound of horns in the parking lot, we all
know the sounds of Christmas, but I rather concentrate on the smells, the odors,
the fragrance of pine, wood fires, and the smells from Theresa’s kitchen. A
certain time of the year that never seems to last long enough, and we never seem
to fully realize how much we enjoy it until after it has passed. It’s beginning
to smell a lot like Christmas, everywhere I go....
I was thinking about God the other day, and how we are made in his image.
We read of how his eyes search the earth to and fro, how he hears our prayers,
how he answers them, and how his hand is upon us, but I fail to think about the
odor we give off to him. Better than the smell of a new car leather interior,
better than pies and cookies, better than riding past a golf course of fresh cut
grass, and even better than the smell of racing castor, we, the saints give off
a pleasing aroma to God. The way we smell can please God who created the whole
world, and how things in it smell. We are a pleasing fragrance of God to those
who are dying, our sacrifice can be a pleasing aroma to him, even our daily walk
can be a pleasing aroma to God. And if it pleases God, it should please us. He
accepts us as a pleasing aroma when we come to him, and seek Jesus. His spirit
fills the air, and a certain indescribable aroma captivates it. Some are drawn
to it, others ignore it, but just as the spirit is a pleasing aroma, there is
also a smell of death for those that reject Jesus.
God also promises to those that turn against him that their cities will
burn with an unholy odor. That there is a second death, a spiritual one, that
reeks of fire and brimstone, the smell of rotting flesh that has no life. But
he also promises us to be a pleasing aroma when we come out of our sin, and join
him. Even to Noah and his family, and us, his descendants, he hated the smell
of death, of those he created in his own image and loved, and even though man’s
heart is evil from youth, he will never destroy all the living things on the
earth again. So he sent Jesus to make the way....a pleasing aroma to him, to
those that find him, yet a sentence of death to those who deny him. Funny how
one smell can be so heavenly, yet so deadly too.
Jesus gave up of himself to be that pleasing aroma, to atone for ours
sins. Maybe a thing to remember this Christmas, as we eat of all the goodies,
as we gather together, as we get and give gifts, and as we celebrate the birth
of Jesus. Religion can give us that new car smell, bit it too wears off, and
like the mask Moses wore, soon God’s glory will fade from us. Only in Jesus
will we find the provision of the pleasing aroma that brings heaven into our
earthly lives, that is pleasing to God, and every time we open the door to his
heart, we are greeted by that new God smell, made perfect in Christ. Today we
can enjoy the soothing aroma of Jesus if we turn to him, if we confess our sins,
and proclaim him as savior. Let the fragrance of life begin anew for those who
fell away, a new smell for those that just believed, and a familiar aroma for
older saints. The perfume of God cost Jesus everything, he was engineered like
no other man in the world. Don’t wait until Christmas to eat of his goods, to
enjoy the smells. Eat and smell and enjoy today. We are new in Christ only
once, but his fragrance of life in us never dies.
Excuse me, I smell something in the kitchen baking....Merry Christmas to
you, and all you eat and enjoy.
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com