The LORD said to Moses, “Give these instructions to the people of Israel: The offerings you present as special gifts are a pleasing aroma to me; they are my food…”
NUMBERS 28:1-2 [NLT]

Last night, when my oldest was dropped off after his Junior High Life Group, he walked into the house clutching the remaining half of an In-N-Out hamburger. I asked how the life group went that night. His reply: “It was so great. We got In-N-Out on the way home.” No kidding. I’m sure he was jealous of us though: we had a fully balanced four food groups meal while seated at the dinner table. While I tried to conceal the fact that he got to go out to dinner after his life group from his brother and sister, the truth was unavoidable. The aroma of that most revered of all burgers wafted throughout the house as if it were carried upward on the dreams of children — the very substance of Peter Pan’s happy thoughts.

God speaks often about aroma. If you’ve been reading in Daily Walk Bible, there is no shortage of animals being brought and offered on the altar to God. God, who needs nothing, who is fully self-sustaining, declares that whatever is brought to him and subsequently burned on the altar is “a pleasing aroma” and that those offerings “are [His] food.” This seems like a strange declaration. God is not a pre-teen boy: a black hole of infinite food gravity endlessly crushing and assimilating planet loads of dinners by the second (incidentally, that’s how we view our son’s appetite).

Consider for a moment what God must mean, then. The offerings given, the pleasing aroma, and the sacrifice of valuable things must do something important for the offerer. Think about the person in your life who loves to cook. They likely enjoy the taste of what they make. But, by and large, the reason why they love to cook has far more to do with the idea that everyone else — those hosted — enjoy the taste of what they make. Cooks long to hear people asking for seconds, mmm-ing, and begging for a recipe that is always declared to be “so easy (Which, we all know is a complete fabrication. “It’s easy for you,” we say. It’s easy for Michael Jordan to dunk a basketball, too.).” Or, consider a musician you know. They do love their own music, but they really love it when other people love their music. To offer a song to someone that causes them to dance or sing along does something for the musician.

What God may be saying, at least at some level, is that our offering, our sacrifice does something to us within our own hearts. Something good. God is saying to the people who make their offerings that he enjoys it, that they are good, and pleasing. In that sense, offerings are always intended to be made under the banner of joyful generosity. Mariners is a generous church. I’m grateful for where God, through your generosity, is taking us. I’m eagerly anticipating the next season of life and ministry together.

See you soon,
Jeff