Making sense of our Senses

This week's Mustard Seed examines how we experience God's creation. Man has five physical senses; sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. For each of these there are stimuli which are either present or absent. When present, they range from pleasing to painful.
Our physical senses do not operate in isolation. I witnessed an example of interdependence when my wife developed a tumor in her spine. It dampened the sensation from her lower body causing her to shuffle a bit when she walked. When she closed her eyes, however, she would stagger as if well into her liquor. Her visual cues compensated almost completely for the diminished sense of touch from her feet. Without them, the simple task of walking was nearly impossible. After recovering from surgery to remove her tumor, my wife still stumbled a bit because she only regained part of her feeling — but her condition was stable. She soon adapted to her 'new normal' and now walks just fine even in the dark.
    Her experience demonstrates that we use each cue in context both with cues sent by other senses and with our memories. We use all this data to place ourselves in context with our environment. Without both internal and external context, our sensations do not serve us well. The same is true of us. Without placing ourselves in context both as human and as a part of God's creation, we do not serve well.
    In addition to five physical senses, man has a sense of existence. He identifies self and other. He knows past, present, and future. Man also senses and desires truth, beauty, and goodness, and therefore man pursues knowledge, arts, and morality. We find meaning and purpose. These are wonderful gifts but, at the same time, horrible. If we do not keep ourselves in proper context as servants of God, they tempt us to become god.
    Next week: We begin specific examples of context.
                                                                                         God bless

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