The Smell

He called me with a question.
There is funny smell in my car, he told me after a few minutes of conversation.
It was back in the days of college, before law school, and before clerking in federal court.
When you come home next weekend, I will give you a Car Jar, I suggested.

I always have a Car Jar hanging from my rear view mirror.
It has to be a kitchen-y smell or a baking smell.
No floral scents or citrus scents for me.
I always have extra ones on hand so I made a mental note to give him one.

Did you ask him what kind of smell it was? My husband asked me when I hung up.
Does that matter? I naively asked in return.
Was it an electrical smell? He has to drive almost six hours to come home.
I have no idea; he just said it was just a funny smell, I answered.

I prayed him home even more than usual.
My husband’s question about an electrical smell lingered in my brain.
Our son arrived home safely.
We talked about other things when he came in the door.

Finally after dinner, my husband asked him about the funny smell in his car.
Let me show you, Dad; maybe you will know what it is, our son said.
They went out to the driveway.
I saw my husband open the hood.

I was thinking about the electrical smell scenario that he mentioned.
I sent up a shooting arrow prayer, thanking God for protecting our son on the drive home.
They came back inside.
I think it is simply the cabin air filter, my husband said, it needs to be changed.

They went off to the store to buy the cabin air filter.
Later that afternoon, the filter was replaced.
The old one was thrown away.
I gave him a Car Jar just in case.

Unlike me, my son will not hang anything from his rear view mirror.
There is a little compartment on the passenger side of his car.
He slipped the Car Jar in there.
The scent permeated the car very quickly.

The car sat in the driveway for most of the weekend.
He drove his car the day after the new filter was installed.
He came inside looking a bit frustrated.
The smell is still there; I think its actually worse, he said perplexed.

My husband told him to pull his car into the empty garage bay so he could really look at it.
The hood was immediately opened.
The two of them were outside in the garage for a while.
I heard the door to the house open and close as they came into the kitchen.

We found the problem, my husband said.
I looked at both of them for some clues.
It was a mouse, my husband said nonplussed.
I don’t understand, I said searching each of their faces.

The weather is getting colder, my husband said as if that would explain everything.
And? I asked wishing they would get to the main point.
A mouse built a nest of leaves and brush near the engine where it is warm.
Were there babies? I asked connecting the dots in my mind.

There were babies, my husband said stressing the word, were.
We didn’t see the nest the first time because it twas really tucked in between things.
The mouse intuitively wanted to keep her babies in a warm place.
However, the conditions in between parts of a car engine were not safe for baby mice.

It was the smell of decay.
It was the smell of rotting baby mice.
It was the smell of disintegrating leaves and brush.
It was the smell of death.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. 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. (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)

When we think of spring, we think of new life.
When we think of new life, we think of trees budding and flowers blooming.
Spring is the smell of honeysuckle.
Spring is the smell of lilacs.

New life has a unique fragrance.
The smell of a spring rain.
The smell of roses.
The smell of freshly mowed grass.

We have all seen news reports of devastating earthquakes.
We remember the news reports of 9/11 when the Twin Towers fell.
We can still picture the rescue workers in our minds wearing surgical masks.
Those masks were to protect them from disease; they were to protect them from the smell.

It is the same smell that my son had in his car but on a larger scale.
Life has a sweet aroma.
Death has a putrid smell.
We wrinkle our noses at the mere thought.

The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)
Can you smell it?
Are you wrinkling your nose?
After the Fall in the Garden, the air was filled with the smell of death.

But God had a plan.
God had a plan to save His people from before the foundation of the world.
The Incarnation of that saving plan is Jesus, God’s Son.
There was the smell of life in the manger of Bethlehem.

New Life.
No wrinkling of noses.
The pleasant aroma of Christ.
The plan of salvation in Jesus smells sweet.

In this sin-stained world, the aroma of death lingers.
If we raise our heads and sniff the air, we can smell it.
We can smell the aroma of Christ.
It is the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.

And it is so sweet.