What's That Smell?
What does Jesus smell like?
Looking for the ideal candle to aromate your home this Christmas? Then Bob and Karen Tosterud have the perfect solution: a candle that not only reminds you of Jesus, but actually smells like Jesus.
What does Jesus smell like?
Read Psalm 45, an Old Testament Scripture picture of the coming Savior, and in verse 8 it says, “All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.” Although this is figurative language for the pleasant satisfaction that the Savior brings, Bob and Karen Tosterud have created a new candle scent called “His Essence” made of myrrh and aloes and cassia, and want it to offer people a new sense of Jesus that is different from other scents.
Hey, why not? I think it’s a perfect complement to all the other scents wafting around this time of the year like pine, cinnamon, spicy egg nog, and Christmas cookies. Maybe even a replacement. Imagine that, Jesus being part of the Christmas season!
The other day I was wished a “happy holiday” by a very nice, very sincere, very obedient-to-the-new-company-policy-regarding-what-you-say-about-Christmas manager in the auto service department. His wishes were kind, but I couldn’t help thinking what holiday he really meant. Christmas? Hanukkah? Kwanzaa? New Year? A holiday vacation from work? A holiday vacation from school? A holiday sale on overpriced SUV’s? All of these? Some of these?
Estee Lauder once visited a posh Parisian department store to convince them to carry her newest fragrance. She was promptly rebuffed. Characteristically unwilling to take “no” for an answer, Lauder poured perfume all over the floor. So many customers asked about the scent that the store agreed to stock the product!
I want to spread the scent of Jesus all over the holidays that are being wished and celebrated as some vague season of peace and rebuffing the true Savior whose birth we celebrate. I don’t want people to wonder what makes my holidays special. So, even without “His Essence,” I will continue to wish you and everyone else a “Merry Christmas” or a “blessed Christmas” or a “Christ is born” or anything that will give them the sense (scents?) of Jesus.
Thanks Bob and Karen Tosterud, for your passion in sharing the true joy of this season, and thanks all you people who wish me “happy holiday” so that I can have the chance to tell you in which “holy day” true joy is really found, and thanks to you, Jesus, for being the most pleasant and satisfying gift of all.
PRAYER: You fill these holy days with joy and peace, Jesus, because you came near to us at your birth and stay near to us with your love. Give me the gentleness, the kindness, and the right expressions to share this joy and peace I know with others by what I say and how I behave. Let your love be seen and shared by faith more and more this season. Amen.