The smells of the city

Isn't it amazing how a simple smell can evoke such strong and vivid memories?
The other day I was riding my bike to work (which I've started to do as part of my latest new and improved health kick). I was absentmindedly pedaling along a busy street when suddenly I smelled this incredible aroma of freshly baked bread and cinnamon buns. I glanced around to see if there was a bakery nearby, but didn't see one. There was no mistaking the smell, however! It lasted for almost a block and then faded away and was replaced by the sweet smell of rotting fruit in a grocery store and then the pungent aroma of cigarette smoke and then car exhaust, etc. etc.
If I'd biked in the other direction I would have gone down a tree-enclosed pathway that smells very strongly of french fries. I've biked that same route for years and it always smells of french fries, even though it's an industrial area with no stores nearby. I can't quite figure it out.
Apparently scents are the strongest memory trigger there is. I remember after my sister died, smelling her clothes, and it was as if she was right there again. If I closed my eyes I could see her.
The smell of lavender oil will always remind me of a trip I took down the west coast to mexico when I was 16- I had a jar of lotion that I put on every day. If I smell it and close my eyes I can remember sitting in the sand dunes watching the sun go down, swimming in the salty waves, haggling for bargains in a market.
You can't ignore a smell. It permeates the atmosphere and triggers a response in our brains. Sometimes it isn't clear where it's coming from and we engage our minds and eyes to try to track down the source.
The Bible says that as Christians, we are the fragrance of Christ to those who are dying. It isn't always something that you can see, that you can put your finger on, that you can lay hold of and say "that's it!" But it is there. In a world of death, in a world of shallow existences that struggle against their futility, we are the surprising aroma of life, of hope- the aroma that is impossible to ignore because it triggers such a sharp experience of reality.
I used to find it hard to grasp spiritual things, because like scents, you can't see and touch them and nail them down. As soon as you think you've got them, they're gone. But like the smell of french fries on my way to work, I'm sure they exist. And I'm sure they are even more real than the material things in this world that we grasp for.