Matthew 2:11
“On coming to the house, [the Magi] saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.  Then they opened their gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”

John 19:38a, 39-40a
“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus…With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.  Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.  Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.”

2 Corinthians 2:14-16a
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.  To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”

Precious Lord, your Spirit lingers with invisible beauty over, around and through us.

As a gift of honour, those who were wise brought a costly scent to your Son’s cradle and to his grave.  The aroma of myrrh adorned the unseen presence rejoicing at the incarnation, rising within the dead.

Accept our lives as a fragrant offering to your glory, though it costs us all we treasure  May we be the aroma of Christ in a dying world.

It is in His name that we pray, and because of the rich and beautiful power of his presence.

Listen to ‘Were You There’ by Sherry Muchira