The Fragrance of Joy
I can still remember the first time I smelled an orange tree in its fully-blossomed glory. Having left behind a barren landscape of ice and snow, I’d landed in sunny Arizona for a spring break visit to my grandparents. While their retirement park was humble, the fragrance that wafted through the open window of my grandparents’ double on the first morning of my visit was not. Spell bound, I marveled at the rich aroma that filled the air.
“What is that smell?” I asked my grandmother as we lingered over breakfast.
“Why, those are the orange blossoms,” Grandma replied nonchalantly. “Soon Grandpa will pick his breakfast right off that tree in our backyard.”
“You have your own orange tree?” I marveled as I ran out the back door to investigate and followed my nose to the source of nature’s perfume.
“Do the trees always smell this good?” I asked my grandfather later that day as we strolled through the tree lined streets of the retirement park.
“Only when they’re getting ready to bear fruit,” Grandpa replied with a satisfied sniff. “I never grow tired of spring’s harvest.”
Much like my grandparents’ orange trees, a life rooted in Christ bears evidence of blossoming fruit. The Apostle Paul declares: “Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God…to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume” (2 Corinthians 2:15, 16b).
As a child of fourteen, I didn’t need horticulture degree to recognize that the trees with an intoxicating fragrance were the ones dotted with oranges. Likewise, I don’t need a seminary degree to spot Christians who are growing the Spirit’s fruit of joy. Just as the intoxicating scent of oranges transformed a dingy trailer park into a slice of paradise, so the invigorating fragrance of joy transforms the dismal reality of life into an unexpected delight.
Joy in full-bloom is unmistakeable. We cannot help but notice the aroma of joy in the midst of our daily grind. The grocery-store mom who is smiling despite the fussy baby in her cart; the little-league father who is cheering despite defeat; the radiant bride; the radiant nursing home resident- these are sniffs of heaven invading the stale smell of earth.
When we allow the Holy Spirit to grow the fruit of joy in our lives, we offer a drab world a glimpse of Jesus. While joy may be a rare fragrance on earth, CS Lewis reminds us “in this world everything is upside down. That which, if could be prolonged here, would be a truancy, is likest that which in a better country is the end of ends. Joy is the serious business of Heaven. (The Business of Heaven).
I may never be able to grow an orange tree in the soil of my backyard, but I can grow the fruit of joy in the soil of my home if I sink my roots near the Source of Living Water.
Today’s Treasure: But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. -Jeremiah 17: 7-8
