What's that smell?

Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.

A couple of weeks ago my friend Monica and I went downtown for lunch. We went to Salad King, visited my friend at work, got some bubble tea, and decided to head back to the Eaton Centre just to hang out and shop around before we had to go on our ways home. We wandered around aimlessly, just chatting and perusing random merchandise. Since both of us went to Hong Kong this summer and have not fully readjusted to North American prices, we had no desire to actually buy anything. Instead, we made it our goal to trek the entirety of the mall just for fun (which led to, among other things, my discovery of a bathroom on the third floor of which I was not previously aware).
The last leg of our journey was to the lower Concourse level. There really isn't much down there - a small food court, a Mind Games Store, and an Athletes World? But in the spirit of why not, we headed down the escalator to visit the land down under. And as we descended, our conversation was suddenly interrupted - by a subtle, thoroughly delectable scent. It smelled like... chocolate? Pastries? We didn't know, but it was amazing.
The frantic foodies that we are, we immediately got really excited and looked all around to find the source of the aroma. But there was nothing in sight and no stores nearby that would identify it. What exactly it was, we will never know... but it was there, wafting into our noses so intensely that although we couldn't find where it came from, we knew it was real.

That experience helped me later to appreciate the above passage, 2 Corinthians 2:14-17. I've heard before that olfaction, the sense of smell, is the most primitive of the five senses. Babies learn to recognize the scent of their mother early on in infancy. Smell is strongly linked to the sense of taste, so something that smells bad is also considered to be unappetizing, and as well as to memory. For example, the scent of gingerbread reminds us of Christmas, the smell of mothballs reminds me of grandmother's closet, and the smell of oranges reminds me of three people in my life who I know really like oranges.
Now stop for a minute and think that Christians are the aroma of Christ. That we waft into people's lives, and they sense God living in us and loving through us. They may not know the source of the scent right away, but they are making up their minds about it: "to the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life" (v.16). This verse makes me think of the Lush store that is at the Eaton Centre, right near the Dundas subway station entrance. Every time I walk by to get to the subway, it makes me want to gag. But I can only assume there are people out there who really like that smell (even though it smells like a fistful of potpourri and a bar of soap shoved down your throat at the same time).
In the end, for those that find the scent appealing and keep searching, they will eventually find the source, and "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Ps. 34:8). But as Children of God, we are the aroma, the first sense that many people get of Christ. An important job, but then again, not really a job at all: it's just what we are. People inviting other people to taste and see - and feel and hear - the Living God.