Incense or Smoke? (Poem)

With five great sensory gateways, we’ve all been blessed,

But of the five, there is one that we hear of less.

By the eye and the ear gates, the others are trumped.

With these, plus taste and touch, much of life is now ‘clumped.’ ¹

Of the five, the one that’s left is the gate of smell.

It’s of this gate that there is a story to tell.

So sit back, relax and take a deep breath,

As we ponder this one gate that is left. 

We think senses are gateways to our brains,

All functioning as our sensory lanes.

But in essence, each one feeds our spirit,

With things from life we filter, then edit.

With a unique organ, each ‘lane’ is equipped:

Eye, ear, tongue, skin, nose, with their DNA script.

With skin, each organ is covered,

So by each, our feelings are stirred.

But there’s something special about the nose.

It is the only ‘lane’ through which air flows.

‘So what?!’, you might ask.

By God, the nose has been uniquely blessed:

Only by it, is His breath of life accessed!

By four dominant senses perhaps you perceive,

How they and their organs help shape what you believe.

But the nose and sense of smell? Now that’s a stretch!

Really, can smells onto our spirit… something etch?

Consider this:

Spirit, not body, is who and what we are – our essence.

By our spirit, not body, we have what’s called cognizance.²

The Latin root of the English word, spirit, means breath.

As we breathe, what we smell infuses our spirit’s health.

Smell, our most direct and most lingering sense,³

Immediately impacts our true essence!

Since in God’s spirit image we have all been created,

Imagine smells He loves, or by which He’s aggravated!

In this Age of Grace, it is not incense or roasting flesh, 

But our life’s quality in Christ by which God is refreshed.

In Christ, sweet, soothing aromas to God are sanctioned,

But against smoke in His nostrils …we have been cautioned.⁴

To Him, our sins are as pungent as lingering smoke.

Perhaps you have smelled it, so awful that it can choke!

With thoughts of it, that sickening feeling you won’t escape!

Thus, with repentance, He blots out our sins …for His own sake! ⁵

We can choose which smells of us with God will be lingering,

And whether to our prayers He’ll be eagerly listening.

He gives us a clear choice: to be like incense or like smoke,

To be a soothing aroma, or ...His anger provoke.

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¹ Typically, the four dominant senses

² Cognizance: awareness, knowledge, reality, perception

³ ‘Smell is the most direct of all our senses.  We see only where there is light enough, taste only when we put things into our mouths, touch only when we make contact with someone or something, hear only sounds that are loud enough to hear. But we smell always and with every breath. Cover your eyes and you will stop seeing, cover your ears and you will stop hearing, but if you cover your nose and stop smelling, you will die. We live in a constant wash of [smells]. What’s perhaps most extraordinary is that scent lodges itself largely in the long-term memory system of the brain…’

The Science of Smell: How the Most Direct of Our Senses Works

⁴ [Sin is] smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. (Isaiah 65:5)

⁵ ‘I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more.’ (Isaiah 43:25) Our repentance is mutually beneficial to us and also to God, Himself.