garlic, cooking, and the aroma of Christ...

I love to cook. In my dreams I'm southern like Paula Deen, dainty and precise like Giada, master mixer like Bobby Flay, and as creative as Alton Brown. But like I said, it's in my dreams. In reality I'm Bianca Juarez, cook ordinaire who loves to eat, therefore loves to cook.

Last night my friends made a tasty offer: I cook, they buy the ingredients. Deal! I had a low-carb, high flavor meal in mind so I texted the ingredients and marinated the menu in my mind. When I arrived I immediately began whipping cauliflower, cleaning and blanching the asparagus, and seasoning the meat. Without a care, I chopped up an entire shallot, onion, and a bulb of garlic. No, not a clove of garlic, a bulb of garlic. By the time dinner was done I had washed my hands multiple times, but there was no denying I had been around garlic. The scent deeply penetrated my skin and the aroma filled in the car even as I drove home.

2 Corinthians 2:15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. We each have a fragrance we emit which is determined by what we are around. Just as garlic seeped into my skin, the word of God does so likewise. Paul urges us to, live a life of love, just as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God (Eph. 5:2). So the question I ask is, what is your fragrance? Do you smell appetizing? Do you reek of cantankerous rot? Have you been saturated by things that will draw people in or push them away? I'm not saying to mince a garlic and reek all day! I'm simply pointing out that what we surround ourselves with will omit a fragrance that will let everyone else know what we've been around.

Be the aroma of Christ. Now if you'll excuse me I need to wash my hands for the umpteenth time. Yes, my phalanges still smell like garlic.