I’m just a few hours from walking back into my house after being on the road for several days. When that happens, when I walk from the garage into the laundry room, I am greeted with a smell. It’s the smell of our home. It’s familiar and comforting. It’s an aggregation of things that makes the smell, but it’s the way our house smelled in Kansas City, in Goshen, in Nashville and in Fort Wayne. I love the smell… and frankly, when I’m away, I miss it. But it won’t be long.
I believe that longing for the smell of home is not only okay, I think it’s biblical. In fact, the book of Revelation reveals that the smells of heaven will be produced, in part, from the incense of God’s people. Scripture records that the golden bowls of the elders will be full of incense. And then it gives us the formula for the incense. The secret ingredients.
“…the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” ~ Revelation 5:8
The smell of heaven, the aroma before the Almighty, the fragrance that creates the comfort of home eternal, are the ignited prayers of the saints. These are authentic prayers. A “rock concert of praise” prayers. Gut-wrenching desperate prayers. Tear-stained painful prayers. Laughter-infused celebration prayers. Worn-out consistent prayers. Frustration-laced honest prayers. Blood-stained, in-the-middle-of-the-battle, warrior prayers. Hope-filled, peace-saturated, wilderness prayers. And they, without artificial perfume, are the wonderful smells of home.
They are smells that will remind us of those who have prayed much.
So pray. Pray with passion and power. Knowing that as you do, you infiltrate the atmosphere of heaven. Knowing that you impact eternity. Confident that these prayers become a gift before the throne. A fitting offering to the Lamb.
Is it any wonder why I love the smell of home?
Pray.
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