a Taste of Atmosphere

            Have you ever noticed how you can be eating something delicious, while standing by something nasty, and almost every time, the nasty smell spoils the delight of whatever you’re eating?  If you think about it, it would seem to defy logic: smell is a sense of the object.  To put it in simple terms, little pieces of whatever you’re smelling enter your nostril, and your brain says, “oh, that’s a rose!” or “ew… that’s the skunk the dogs killed.”  So, scent is a microscopic amount of the subject’s matter.  Yet somehow, it often has the power to overwhelm the taste of something that you have large amounts of in your mouth, where 60,000 sensory buds are tasting it at the same time!  How that happens is something I don’t quite understand.

            But think also on how smell can compliment taste:  you put the right scone with the right cup of tea, and your early morning hours just got sweeter.  Have the right scented candles burning during a meal, and the atmosphere can be delicious as well as the meal.  Put the right type of grass in your freshly cut lawn and you will never taste better lemonade.

            Can you see where I’m going with this?  You can be spending time in the Word, and in prayer, devouring every word and every moment, but if you put yourself in and around places that spiritually stink on a constant basis, you’re tainting with rancid beer what could be made complete by the flawless wine of the Word.

            Do not let my meaning be mistaken for avoiding the lost and sinful: we are inescapably called to reach out to them and love them as Christ did.  I’m not talking about the mission field.  I’m talking about the general atmosphere of your home, your church, and wherever else you devote your time.  We should be striving to surround and saturate ourselves with the grace and peace of God at all times, and in all places.

            Now that would be dining with the King.