As a car pulled up next to mine at a stoplight, I had an olfactory flashback to my past. My window was open and wafting in from the beat-up old vehicle on my left was a whiff of stale gasoline, the kind that comes from old fuel-soaked upholstery or wood that has lain out in the hot sun for years, or in a stank storage shed. My nose instantly transported me to my childhood visits to my grandparents’ farm in northern Minnesota. What to others may have been a dull, pungent stink was to me memory-invoking. Ahhhh, what a wonderful aroma that is.

The recollections took me to the old century-barn where Gramps stored his power tools, including his lawnmower and chainsaw. The gasoline vapors had permeated over the decades, infusing the wooden beams, joists and side walls. The canvas tents from many canoe trips to the interior of the BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) emanated the scent that would hit me upon stepping inside. The shed next door housed the old wooden boat and 18 horse-power Evinrude outboard motor, with a few gas cans sitting idly, half-filled with fuel. On a hot day, the fragrance of everything within smell-shot permeated the air. For me, it meant summer with Gramps and Grams, heaven on earth. Old gas-stained odor is pleasing for me because it reminds me of something very important to me as a child.

God has a similar experience with aromas that remind Him of special things. Our sacrifices, as pictured in the OT sacrificial system of Israel, are something He smells:

“Then Aaron’s sons shall offer it up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering, which is on the wood that is on the fire; it is an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.” (Lev. 3:5)

“You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the Lord: it is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord.” (Ex. 29:18)

God enjoys the whiff of when He shows His power through us and we partner with Him by sharing our testimony of what He has done in us:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. (2 Co 2:14)

The aroma that supersedes them all is that which arises up to God when we imitate the fragrant love of Christ, who sacrificed Himself out of love for us—when we love and sacrifice for others the way Christ loved and sacrificed for us:

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. (Eph 5:1–2)