Scripture tells us that as followers of Christ we are to be like Him, look like Him, and yes, even smell like Him.  To ‘be’ like Him, in Leviticus 11.44 we read, “For I am the Lord your God . . .  be holy, for I am holy.”  That’s a tall order for this one made from the dirt of the earth!  But, it’s repeated in the same book in 19.2 and 20.26 – also in I Peter 1.16.  (The Hebrew word for ‘holy’ is ‘separate’ or ‘set apart’.)   I can’t – no one can work their way their way to Heaven – but I take that word, ‘holy’, seriously – and conscientiously, I look at where my life should be and how it should be lived in His presence.

The Scripture tells us that we should ‘smell’ like Jesus.  Paul wrote, “Thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.  For we are the aroma of Christ . . .”  (II Corinthians 2:14,15)    Burnt offerings in Genesis 8:20,21, Leviticus 23.18, and Numbers 28.27 were spoken of as having ‘an aroma pleasing to the Lord’.  Everywhere I go, it is my heart’s desire to be the aroma of Jesus.  Part of the year while I live in Romania, do I spread His aroma there?  Do I spread his aroma while I am in the States?  Do people notice a difference in me?  Several years ago when I entered a friend’s home, she said that whatever it was I had, she wanted it.  A hairdresser told me once that there was something so ‘curiously’ different about me.  What was it?  I told him simply, “Jesus”.  His response was, “I knew it!”  I got to share the beautiful aroma of our Lord with him.  Do I always ‘look’ like Jesus, ‘be’ like Jesus and ‘smell’ like Jesus.  No. It’s then that I pray for the Holy Spirit to fill me with Himself so that the aroma of Jesus radiates from me to spread His fragrance everywhere I go.

And not only are we to be like Jesus, and smell like Jesus, we are to look like Jesus.  We are to be ‘transformed by the renewing of our minds’.  (Romans 12.2)  ‘Christ lives in me’ – (Galatians 2.20) –  and we become ‘more like Christ through sanctification’ (becoming more like our Savior) – (Romans 6.22)  I want to mention three gentlemen I have met who ‘looked like Jesus’.

The first one was an elderly gentleman in Romania. He was a shorter man, from aging and a very difficult life.  It was important for him to tell me that he prayed for America every day!  When I asked him why, he said that ‘during the WAR (WWII), he was imprisoned and the Americans came and rescued him.  Wonderful story!  But all the while I was engaged with him, I had never seen anything quite like it.  His eyes seemed to ‘burn like the Holy One – God eyes, Himself’.  I could barely take my eyes off him.  Jesus was so real in his life that He radiated/burned through this man’s eyes – I can still see Him – in him in my mind.   (Revelation 1.14)

Secondly, I sat under a pastor at one time in Romania who was truly, a type of Christ – kind, patient, loving, gentle – all that ‘fruit of the Spirit’.  He shared with us that when he married, he told his wife to always look in his eyes – and if she didn’t see enough love there for her, she was to let him know.  Who else would even say that?!  I loved this man of God.  Not only did he want her to see his love for her in his eyes, but Jesus’ love for her – through his eyes.

Most recently I met, truly, a servant of the Lord from Ukraine.  This man in his mid-thirties and I did not get to say much to each other with his not knowing English and my not knowing any Ukrainian, and very little Romanian.  But as people do, they make eye contact when speaking even a few words.  After only a few seconds, it was difficult for me to hold eye contact with him.  It’s as if I were looking into the eyes of Jesus!  I had never seen this before!  I kept discreetly glancing back at him, and all I could think of was – ‘what is he thinking’?  Is he Jesus?!  Was he able to see my sin?  Was there anything I needed to confess?  Was Jesus longing for me to become more like Him – to look more like Him.  Or was it just that this gentle man had daily renewings/cleansings of his mind and heart – that his sanctification process was so far more advanced than mine – that his life was of one purpose – to look like Jesus – having eyes that looked out with pure agape love.  I don’t know.  But that day, I felt as if I had looked into the eyes of the Master . . .  (Matthew 6.22)

My prayer is that I would be given the ‘eyes of Jesus’ – that I would see this world as He sees it.  (Please, Jesus, let me be like You, let me see like You, let me act like You, and re-act like You – let people see You in me . . . )