It was eleven years ago. I was standing in front of my class teaching and this young man walked in. At our school, some of the higher functioning students with mental disabilities came to our rooms to collect the recyclables. He was one of those students.

He walked right in and interrupted my lesson to tell me he had seen Horton Hears a Who over the weekend. He went on, oblivious to my students watching us, to tell me all about his experience. I smiled, asked questions, and Grant and I had a conversation in the middle of my Calculus lesson.

Then, just as abruptly as he began the conversation, he ended it by looking at me and declaring, “And you smell good.” And he turnaround and walked out of my room.

I believe in that moment, God used Grant to speak a prophetic word over me. He used Grant to remind me that I smell like Jesus.

I don’t take lightly the call on my life – to love people. All people. To be light in the darkness. To hang out with teenagers and show kindness, acceptance. To point them to Jesus through my actions. To embolden, empower, impact, and impart Christians and Pre-Christians. To leave the fragrance of Jesus everywhere I go and with everyone I meet.

I am also realizing that when I don’t walk in the fullness of the gifts God has given me, I become stagnate. And like stagnate water, I stink. I become more focused on being blessed than being a blessing. My problems are amplified because my attention is on me and not on blessing those around me.

That is not who I am designed to be. I am the sweet fragrance of Jesus. According to Grant, “I smell good.”

Brothers and sisters, I encourage you today, to remember who you are – light in the darkness, a sweet aroma, a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. Be a blessing to those around you. Heal the sick. Preach the love of Jesus. Give generously. Set the captives free. Remember, “You smell good.”

“But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. And who is adequate for such a task as this?”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭2:14-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬