Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Today's reading titled The Sweet Aroma of Christ was written by David H. Roper.

I knew a rancher who lived near Lomita, Texas. His two grandsons were my best friends. We would go into town with him

and follow him around while he shopped and chatted with the folks he knew. He knew them all by name,

and he knew their stories. He'd stop here and there and ask about a sick child or a difficult marriage,

and he'd offer a word of encouragement or two.

He would share scripture and pray if it seemed the right thing to do.

I'll never forget the man.

He was something special.

He didn't force his faith on anyone, but he always seemed to leave it behind.

The elderly rancher had about him what Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 would call

the sweet aroma of Christ. God used him to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Christ. He's gone

to be with God now, but his fragrance lingers on in Lomita. C.S. Lewis wrote,

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked with a mere mortal.

Put another way, every human contact has eternal consequences.

Every day we have opportunities to make a difference in the lives of people around us

through the quiet witness of a faithful and gentle life,

or through encouraging words to a wary soul. Never underestimate the effect a Christ-like life can have on others.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 14 through 17.

But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession,

and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of Him everywhere,

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