Walk in love,
I love walking in the woods and in a garden, especially in the spring when the air is filled with the fragrance of honey suckle, lilacs, and roses, Even the fresh turned dirt has a wonderful aroma to me. It rejuvenates me, filling me with grace, peace, and hope. It's that kind of fragrance that makes me want to linger long and be refreshed. That is until I approach a dead carcass. Then the aroma changes to a stench of death and decay. I want to get away quickly.
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But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ,
and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge
of Him in every place.
For we are a fragrance of Christ to God
among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,
to the one an aroma from death to death,
to the other an aroma from life to life.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
Grace is undeserved, it's free, it's God's gift to us; grace is the fragrance of Christ. I don't ever want to be a dead carcass to someone. And yet that's what I become when I fail to be the fragrance of grace. It's not up to me to figure out if someone deserves something. . . a position, a raise, forgiveness. But it is up to me to be the fragrance of grace--lift the fallen, restore the broken, and bring healing to the hurting.