The Nose Knows (#53)

Jacob watched his father eat. Even blind, he refused help, attacking the haunch with a grin unhidden by his gray beard. Wish he showed that kind of enthusiasm for me. Well, I’ll show him. Someday, he’ll be proud of me, too. Besides, the blessing’s mine. Esau didn’t want it. So, I’m just collecting what’s already mine.

“So, my son, come here and kiss me so that I can bless you,” Isaac said, suddenly setting the stripped bone aside.

Jacob’s forehead popped wet beads. Lowering his voice to his brother’s deeper timber, he replied, “Yes, my father,” as he shuffled forward in the ill-fitting suit. What was that furrow between the old man’s sightless eyes? Did he suspect? Before he could evade, his father embraced him with surprising strength. Isaac said nothing, buried his face in the stolen tunic, and inhaled deeply. Heart pounding in ears, Jacob held his breath. Then, slowly, his father relaxed the iron grip, sighed contentedly, and said, “Ah, the smell of my son …”

The olfactory nerve contains about ten million neurons that carry data from nose to brain. According to one theory, each neuron responds to only a single, specific shape of odor molecule, just as only one key opens any given lock. Most odor molecules twist in a complex mix of shapes that activate various combinations of neurons. Smell lasts more accurately in long-term memory than any other sense and touches emotions strongly. A sudden whiff triggers past feelings, making them intensely present. Cross-cultural smells delight or disgust us. Foreign body, street, and market odors generate heart-deep judgments. Despite modern deodorant’s drive to make us all equally nice, different odors still distinguish individual people and different cultures.

Likewise, God marks His people with distinctive scent. Paul wrote, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one, we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”