In The Company of Roses

We can all appreciate how lingering odors aren’t always pleasant.  There are some lingering smells, however, that are pleasant.  Today’s “borrowed blessing” reminds us how our presence lingers in the lives of others, and what lingers should be more of a fragrance than an odor. “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” (2 Corinthians 2:15). 

“In the Company of Roses" by Henry Gariepy
Roses are grown for the Vienna market in great profusion and with much distillation of fragrance. We are told that if you were to visit that valley at the time of the rose crop, wherever you would go the rest of the day, the fragrance you would carry with you would betray where you had been. There is a beautiful parable given to us by the Persian poet and moralist, Saadi. The poet was given a bit of ordinary clay. The clay was so redolent with sweet perfume that its fragrance filled all the room. “What are you, musk
or ambergris?” he questioned. “I am neither,” it answered. “I am just a bit of common clay.”  “From where then do you have this rare perfume?” the poet asked. “I have companied  all the summer with a rose,” it replied.  We are just bits of the common clay of humanity. But if we company with the One Who is the Rose of Sharon ... something of the fragrance of His life will pass into ours. Then we will be a refreshing and a sweetening influence to the world around us.