A brown haired girl

Quick, name one delectable smell that gets your attention and won't let you leave a place till you find the source! That's easy. For me, it is the smell of freshly made pretzels in any shopping mall. When I smell that aroma, I am like a 'moth to the nightlight'. It is possible the pretzel stores might subtly blow that aroma into the mall corridors in order to prime our hunger. If so, THANK YOU!

Thinking along those lines, I often wonder what aroma I am leaving in my wake. Am I a vagabond leaving behind strewn bodies that fell over from my stench or are there folks inspired by the sweet fragrance of Jesus Christ in me? This question is relevant for all of us to wrestle with and to get some sense of an answer.

Yesterday, we finished our month long focus on hospitality and the worship we gave to God was the best we could offer. In the midst of our corporate prayer offerings, we received a heart warming prayer response. Let me pause here to share a little bit about my "Call Statement". I went through a year of discernment to discover my purpose for serving God. It eventually narrowed to this:

"One who invests my life into seeing the image of God in every person and help them see Him within." 12/17/2014 Every facet of my life then is wound around this premise. I seek to value others and help them identify the image of God in Christ within. This work energizes me and helps me live into what God's will is for me. Back to yesterday. Here is the prayer response from a little girl who has been attending our church for some time.

"Dear paster, It's the girl named Brynn. I liked the song u sang when will u sing again paster? I know some bible stories too paster. I read the bible and like to sing too :)

sincerely the little brown hair girl Brynn

I love Jesus+god+Heaven"

The back story here is that Brynn, would hardly look up from her lap at one time. She is shy. Over the last several months, this little brown haired girl has been trained to be our acolyte (lighting the candelabras). She has experienced the glory of God and the nearness of Jesus. Today, she was confident enough to share this response with me and the church.

The church here in Lewistown is doing good work in identifying, equipping, and sending new disciples into the world. Can you see Brynn's excitement? Can you envision this young lady standing behind a pulpit one day sharing the sweet fragrance of Jesus with her church? I can! Hey, anyone who loves to read Bible stories and sing is prepped to serve Jesus.

Our challenge is simply to convey the love of God in Christ to others. Our task is to leave behind Christ's compelling fragrance to a degree that those who seek Him will find not leave till they find Him. What aroma are you leaving behind?