Has anyone ever come up to you asking, “I love your perfume (or after-shave/cologne for you guys) … what are you wearing?  What is the name of it?  Where did you buy it?  I’d like to get some!”

It’s a compliment when someone likes the way we smell!  It is also a BIG turnoff when we don’t smell good. 😦

I love the story of the woman who anointed Jesus with the costly oil and wiped His feet with her hair.  It’s a story with which we are all familiar.  We’ve heard many sermons on this story but there is something about this story that intrigues me.

The spikenard oil was very costly and used only for very special occasions.  This woman loved Jesus and wanted to show her love by washing His feet with this perfume.  Look at the picture with me …

The men are reclining around the table enjoying a wonderful meal.  Mary’s heart is stirred with her love for Him and she goes to get her special stash of expensive oil.  She kneels at His feet, breaks open the jar and pours it on His feet.  Yes, she could have used water but it would not have cost her anything.

Then as she cleans His feet and prepares to dry them, she unties her hair, it falls over her shoulder and she uses her hair to dry His feet.

The fragrance from this oil fills the room.  Everyone became aware of her worship.  As she slips out the door again the fragrance lingers.

The point that sticks I my mind is this … the aroma of her worship also stayed with her!  Can’t you just imagine as she walked by others on her way to the store, in her workplace, as she walked down the street … that others stopped, looked around and asked, “What is that I smell?  It is SO good!  I would like some of that.”

When we truly worship Him, worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, giving Him our all, worship that is costly to us … when we leave our time of worship can others tell that we have been in His Presence?  Can they tell by our demeanor, our lifestyle, our attitudes that something is different about us?  Do people turn as we walk on the streets saying, “I wonder who that woman/man is?  There is something about them! Something different and unusual!  I would like to know that person!”

Or do we leave our “place” of worship acting, smelling, being the same person we were before?  If so, then our worship didn’t mean much!

Obviously not everyone will like our worship … too long, too loud, too strict, too … costly.  Judas was one of those.  He was indigent about what he considered “waste”.  Some will ridicule you saying you are wasting precious moments or even your life.  However, Jesus praised her for anointing Him for burial.

Our worship should change our lives!  Worship is not just raising our hands in song in the corporate meeting with other believers.  Worship changes us!  There is a verse in Psalm 96:9, “Worship the Lord with the beauty of holy lives” (LB).  Worship should be done all day, every day, all the time.

Do our lives cause people to be drawn to Jesus by the way we “smell”? Or does our “smell” cause people to turn the other way and reject the Christ we say we love?

Here’s my point … we should love and worship the Lord so extravagantly that it changes US and causes others to question what (or rather Whom!) makes us smell so good!

How do you smell today?  What is the fragrance that surrounds you?