Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Christ's offering was His obedience, His life, His worship. A fragrant offering....

I had a great picture a few years ago, as the congregation I was a part of was worshipping through music, corporately lost in the moment of being in God's presence. I was up in the balcony, and I think we must have been singing of the "fragrant offering," because all of a sudden I saw us all in a picture, still worshipping through the exact same music we were in the middle of. And as we sang, we thought we were offering to God the most beautiful aroma as an offering. And as I watched our aroma float up to heaven, I recognized that our purest offering and what we thought was the most beautiful fragrance smelled like the vilest pile of rotting garbage - a real stench before the Lord.

And God took a deep breath and inhaled it all in anyway.

What love. What magnificent love.

Later, God showed me that though our best offering we are able to give is still often only an unrefined and smelly odor, it is filtered through the cross of Jesus, and really does become a fragrant offering before the Most High God. Just like we are unable to stand before God without the covering of Jesus' blood, so our worship is rotten and foul without the filter of that same blood.

Hallelujah. Praise to the Almighty God for His plan through His Son to allow us before Him in worship. May we always recognize our place before the King and position ourselves accordingly - at His feet, before His throne, prostrate and lost in adoration and worship.