To just come right out and ask somebody what they think you Smell like might be offensive to them (or to you if they give you a candid answer). But most people care deeply about what others think of their particular odor. Americans spend zillions of dollars every year on perfumes (Obsession-$50 for 4 ounces) and cologne (quality gentlemen's foo foo sells for about $10 an ounce, too). But those products just fix you from the neck up. Deodorants, special soaps, body splashes and powders, breath mints and mouthwashes are also big ticket items for the socially conscious.
Some folks don’t really care what they smell like and we all know the results of working out in the hot sun on a summer afternoon. The effects of such work can usually be corrected with a good hot bath and the application of soap. Just in case however if you need a good excuse to buy products that make you smell pleasant, here it is. Now there is a new branch of scientific research called "odor engineering." So far the researchers have tried odor engineering only in the work place.
I can just imagine what my grandparents would have said if someone used the term “odor engineering” around them. Grandpa would have wondered why anyone would want to make a skunk smell any worse that it already did and Grandma would just shake her head.
According to the publication Communication Briefings, one Japanese firm reports that air scented with lavender cut keypunching errors by 21 percent. Jasmine-scented air dropped errors by 33 percent and lemon in the air was even better-this cut errors by 54 percent. They determined that lavender reduces stress, jasmine relaxes and lemon stimulates. Odors do make a difference.
This gives new significance to a Scripture that has always intrigued me. "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" (2Co_2:15-16).
The odor engineers have not done any research as to what happens to people (or a community) when a true believer comes around and gives everybody a whiff of Christ. I’d sure like to see that research if they ever do. But Paul says this odor does make a difference. The believer, with the knowledge and life of Christ, emits (in a figurative way) the very smell of Christ's sweet sacrifice (note Eph_5:2). We cannot buy it in a bottle. It does not ooze out of our pores. It comes out in our attitudes, actions and words.
That sweet smell affects everybody around us. So it might not be a bad idea to ask yourself, "What do I really smell like?" If you know Christ your life smells good. And you will naturally make a difference in all those around you. If you don’t, maybe you should consider taking a bath in the Cleansing Blood of Jesus.
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