A friend of mine was telling me about a powerful object lesson his pastor had used a couple of Sundays ago. As the pastor talked, he opened a new jar of Folgers instant coffee. Everyone saw him open it, but it made no real impression.Later in his message he proceeded to take whole coffee beans and placed them in a hand grinder. He slowly ground the coffee beans in front of the congregation. Before long the smell of the freshly ground coffee began to fill the room. Pew by pew the aroma began to move through the sanctuary, until all 800 people in the congregation could smell and almost taste the coffee. The difference in the impact to the sense made by the instant coffee, which could only be seen by the congregation, and the fresh ground coffee, which could be seen, smelled and even tasted was striking. The pastor went on to talk about the lives of the members of the congregation and the impact that they were making in their homes, community and work places. I have been thinking a lot about that object lesson. The Bible states, "Our lives are a fragrance present by Christ to God. But his fragrance is perceived differently by those being saved and those perishing" (2 Cor. 2:15 NLT). As a Christian I am to reflect the nature of Jesus wherever I go. In some ways I take the fragrance of Christ with me. To have the fragrance of Christ I must know Him and must spend time with Him. Having grown up and worked in rural America, I know that one can quickly take on the aroma of one’s environment. While working as an agronomist I had a dairy farmer stop by the fertilizer plant to pick up herbicide. Even with my back turned, I knew who it was before I saw him, because the smell of dairy preceded him to the counter. Much to my surprise he commented that he could tell that a hog farmer had recently been in the office "because you can always smell hog people." And he was right. We do take on the aroma of the environment around us. The same is true in the spiritual sense. If I want to have the "aroma" of Jesus in my life, I need to spend time in His presence. How about you? Are you spending time in His presence?