August 30, 2026
Dealing With The Odor
Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
he garbage truck came through the neighborhood every Tuesday morning, and by late July the smell announced it before the truck ever rounded the corner. A full week of trash sitting in summer heat produces an odor that clings to everything nearby, thick enough to make anyone walking past hold their breath and hurry to the other side of the street. The two men riding the back of that truck did not get that luxury. They grabbed can after can, hoisted them into the compactor, and kept moving down the block, hour after hour, in the middle of a smell most people would pay good money to avoid standing near for even thirty seconds.
Nobody assumes those men enjoy that part of the job. They do it because a paycheck is waiting at the end of the week, because the work has to get done and somebody has to be the one who does it. The smell is simply the cost of the job they agreed to take, tolerated because the compensation on the other side makes the tolerance worthwhile.
Christ dealt with an odor too, though nothing about His reason resembled a paycheck. Paul told the Romans that God demonstrated His own love in this, that while people were still sinners, Christ died for them. He did not wait for humanity to clean itself up first, to smell a little less like the mess sin had made of it. He moved toward the stench directly, took hold of what nobody else wanted to get near, and carried it Himself, not because anyone was paying Him to, but because love was reason enough all by itself.
The trash collector gets off that truck every evening and washes the smell away, knowing Friday’s paycheck made it worth the week. Christ carried what He carried, and He did it without ever once needing a reason beyond love.
Today’s Prayer: Lord, thank You for loving me enough to deal with what I could never clean up myself. Help me love others the same way. Amen.
Reflection Question: How does it change your view of Christ’s sacrifice to know He carried your sin not out of obligation, but purely out of love?