Devotional for 7/7/13
If you have seen the movie, Shrek, you will understand a bit about "layers" - "Ogres are like onions, we have layers." Donkey tries to get Shrek to use something else to describe layers, like cake, or parfaits, because they smell better and taste sweet. But Shrek insists it has to be onions in his example.
Do you ever feel like your life is like an onion? Brown and dead-looking on the outside, pungent on the inside, as you peel away the layers it makes you want to cry? As we come before God to confess our sins, we peel away the layers of self-deceit and shame. Sometimes the more we try to dig deep and be honest about our short-comings, the more smelly junk is revealed to us. Or maybe we feel we have dealt with an issue and put it behind us, only to find in resurfacing in another layer of our life.
But perhaps those layers of life are really more like a rosebud. As the layers of petals gently open, not forced by us, but allowed to blossom by God's hand, a beautifully scented flower appears. What once appeared to be a defect of ours may be used by God to bless our life or the lives of others. Sometimes, an event in our life may have seemed to stink like an onion, but in the long run opens up to be a fragrant flower!
God's message of hope in Jesus Christ can be like that. To one person the promise of salvation through Christ brings joy, but to others who do not believe and follow him it can be a message of devastation. As we witness to others of Christ, sometimes our message will not be well received and will leave a stench in the noses of those who reject the message, yet to others we are the "aroma that brings life."
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. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV
May the aromatic layers of our lives be used by God and be a fragrant offering to him as we witness to others of the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ.
written by Jan Andersen
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