Reflecting the Beautiful Star

The smells and sights of summer are a distant and wistful memory. In our chapel yard is planted a Belle Étoile Philadelphus bush. The flowers are pretty enough, but the sweet scent they produce trumps their appearance. The Royal Horticultural Society lauds it thus:

The delicious orange-blossom fragrance floats on the breeze on warm summer evenings. 

The apostle wrote to Corinth: 

For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. (2 Corinthians 2:15) 

I think no-one could dislike the Philadelphus smell, but I dare say there are some who find it too sweet, too strong, too this, too that. We Christians stink to the world, the flesh and the devil, but to God the Father, clothed in Christ’s best robes, we emit His beautiful scent and pleasing aroma.