Just a vapour...

When even a vapour can point to something more.

Water vapours in the sky above our former home make us look up.

Why is it that time moves by so quickly?  You anticipate an interminable chunk of time, which, when you look back was just a vapour.  Just a little while ago I was starting my studies at seminary and now I’m done.  We must also feel like a vapour to those we have gotten to know during our time here.  New friendships made, seemingly dissipating so quickly...

But, even vapours matter.  As short as the time was in Calgary, as short as our time to connect seemed to be, as short as the time spent with new friends, indeed, just like vapour, yet they have left an indelible and permanent impression on us. 

The Scriptures talk of fleeting things counting for eternity.  Maybe this fleeting essence is more akin to a fragrance; one that conjures the  unseen. 

Paul writes, “For we are the aroma of Christ to God...” (2 Corinthians 2: 15a). 

An aroma, which, much like a vapour is only present temporarily, has the ability to conjure something amazing and point to something beyond what is there. 

We are that perfume poured out, able to conjure what is invisible but real.  A fragrance of what can be seen through minds and hearts which is invisible to our eyes.  This invisible fragrance fills us as we breathe in and out and it fills the whole space.

Remember when Jesus was anointed by Mary with pure nard?  “The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (John 12:3b). 

Whatever our fleeting time in the field, whatever your fleeting time in the world around you there is enough time to leave a sweet fragrance.  Time enough to point to something else.