Smelling Jesus

Circled up for morning devotions, this was the opening line of our prayer before stepping into the van; prayed by Mother Teresa of Calcutta: 

“Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.”

There were more words to the prayer, but I got stuck on that first line.  This was a brand-new thought; that Jesus might have his own unique smell.  If so, what would it be like?  And how would we recognize it? 

Twenty-four hours into this journey we’ve already been introduced to an array of powerful and sometimes overwhelming smells:

• Open sewers between houses
• Burning garbage
• The mixture of dust & diesel, traveling between mission sites
• Soiled, wet diapers needing of changing

Today took us to two different locations for mission work:  a hospital in the morning where we rubbed lotion on the dry legs & arms of sick & dying adults.  Then in the afternoon we donned aprons and walked into a nursery where we spent several hours feeding, holding, playing with, singing to, and being present with the rooms-full of beautiful and hungry cribbed babies.  

The sun is set, the day about over, and I’m not sure I have an answer to the question:  what does Jesus smell like?  Perhaps the best I can do here is point to the life of Mother Teresa.  To the many who sojourned to her door seeking connection to something greater, she offered no ‘secret sauce’.  Just this guidance:  that we – you & me, wherever we are and whatever we’re doing – could be the answer to someone’s prayers, if we would only, “let Jesus’ light shine in us, and be in us.”  (Mother Teresa, “Fragrance Prayer”) 

I spent the final hour today holding a beautiful, quiet little 18-month old girl.  My original plan was to spend a few minutes with each child but after quickly draining her bowl of porridge, this one put her arms around my neck, nuzzled in close, and held on as if her very life depended on it.  

While rocking, rubbing her back, and stroking her cheek, I hummed all the songs I sang to my own three girls.  What she’ll remember of this day I will never know.  My prayer is only that the holy fragrance of our time together was healing and life-giving; and that it will linger for both of us long after our final parting hug. 

Pastor Ned Lenhart