AROMATIC COUNSEL

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.

Proverbs 27:9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Smell is one of our most powerful senses and we use it all the time to gauge the world around us.

It can bring on a range of responses which can include the following:

1. Objection and disapproval.

Let some trash sit around too long with content that can rot and see how long it takes for the smell to be too disgusting to handle. Hang around with someone who fails to practice good personal hygiene and you may find their body odor repulsive. Ditto for that person who ate too many baked beans and then started to suffer the gaseous effects in your presence. It’s not pleasant.

2. Warning.

Think about how well our sense of smell keeps us safe. If something begins to burn, your smell will alert you to it and allow you to take actions that very well might save your life. We also use our sense of smell to check as to whether the food we’re going to eat is good or not. Spoiled food has that odor that is easily distinguished and when we smell it, we know not to eat it, avoiding food poisoning or other sicknesses. And natural gas is invisible when it leaks, creating a potentially deadly situation when it happens. We can’t see it but thank goodness we can smell it and take steps to fix the problem before disaster strikes.

3. Pleasure.

Finally, we can get pleasure out of what we smell when it is agreeable to us such as a certain food we like when its cooking (think turkey in the oven on Thanksgiving) or a scent we find appealing such as a special cologne or perfume someone might wear or maybe driving around in a brand new car (it does have that special smell you don’t find anywhere else, doesn’t it?).

With all this, we need to give smell its due as a sense as it too often takes a backseat to sight and hearing and touch on the sense scale. And as we’ll see in our proverb for today, Solomon uses the idea of scent in this verse of wisdom for today:

Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice. Proverbs 27:9

Have you ever been blessed by the advice of another?

I know I have.

Life can be hard sometimes and we can find ourselves in a place where we can’t see the forest for the trees. In those times, we often lean on people who are dear to us, people we know we can rely on and trust, friends who often give us heartfelt advice, an aromatic counsel that is as pleasing to us as perfume or fine incense, counsel that brings our hearts joy as it helps us make it through tough times.

In the final translation, God’s word is speaking to us on two fronts:

First, we are to appreciate the heartfelt advice given to us by those who care and want to help us. We’re to value their aromatic counsel.

Second, we are to be a pleasing friend to others, always willing to be there for them when they have a need and always ready to allow the Lord to offer aromatic counsel through you to lead and guide a person through a challenging time of life.

Both will serve to bring us a joyful heart, whether giving or receiving.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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