Scented Candles

By Cindy Martin –

My teenage daughter loves scented candles. Glorious aromas waft out of her bedroom, her bathroom and our family room downstairs. More recently she has been “lending” them to me upstairs so that we can enjoy fabulous fragrances all throughout the house. Some of the candles are 3 wick candles and some of them are single wick; some have spring-time and summer scents while others infuse the room with spicy autumn and winter aromas.

This past weekend we were visiting with someone in our upstairs living room and I noticed our daughter had lit a large candle and set it on the counter. It was a dreary day outside and while the clouds choked out the sun, the soft warm glow of the 3 wick candle enveloped the room and made it feel like we were inside a giant snow globe.

My mother also loves scented candles but rarely lights one due to fire hazard concerns. Care and responsibility around candles is something I talk with my daughter about often but as I reflected on my mother and daughter’s love for candles, I was struck by their opposing responses. One motivated by sheer delight and the other snuffed out by fear. Carried to excess, both responses are dangerous, and extremes rarely serve us well. We can be guilty of either extreme when it comes to the way we reflect Christ.

As many of us head home during the holiday season to feasts of fragrances around the dinner table, I believe God would have us bring home the “pleasing aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15 NIV). However, emanating Christ’s character and grace can often be the hardest around family members. Rather than extremes, God offers a better way, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere”(2 Corinthians 2:14 NIV).

As believers, the aroma of Christ is God’s gift to us. Gifts are meant for giving – don’t leave this one tucked away in a suitcase of insecurity or obscured in the valley of frenetic activity.
Instead, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 NIV).

Prayer: Lord Jesus, allow Your sweet aroma to permeate my soul so that the fragrance of Your Spirit draws others closer to You.

Quote: “There is nothing more beautiful than the light of a Candle and the Aroma of its Heart.”
Stanley Victor Paskavich