Thought for Today
Psalm 115:5 They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
Psalm 119:52 When I think of your ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O LORD.
Mark 8:18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?
Luke 12:51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
Maybe like me, at some point in your primary education, you learned that there are 5 basic human senses: touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste. As an adult, I have heard mention of a 6th basic human sense, common. Ironically, I have come to conclude that the alleged 6th sense is the most rare. I have also learned as an adult that all 5 of my basic senses operate differently than they did when I was a child. I will not mention that the alleged 6th probably also operates differently . . . I promise I will not mention that!
How should we list those senses? Alphabetically? Is there some rank ordering of importance? Which sense is the most important to you? Which is the most useful to you, and was it always so? All interesting questions; all personal questions.
I have always considered sight as the most important sense for me. I love to read. I have always earned my living in fields highly dependent on my ability to read. But, my vision has changed during my lifetime. In elementary school, every year when the school nurse checked our vision, I was sent home with a note to my parents. Every year my parents dutifully took me to the family ophthalmologist who sent me back to school with a note that my vision was well within normal range. However, within a few months of my 40th birthday, I had to start using reading glasses. My vision has never been especially acute. With all due deference to Natty Bumppo (The Leatherstocking Tales), Hawkeye Pierce (Mash) and the folks in Iowa, my nickname has never been ‘Hawkeye.’ Corrective progressive lenses and recently cataract surgery have enabled me to compensate for my ‘weak eyes’ (read about Leah in Genesis).
Many of my friends and contemporaries wear hearing aids. I do not . . . yet. Greta does occasionally wonder whether or not I suffer from intermittent auditory failure, but she has come to the conclusion that I just don’t listen carefully enough to what she tells me. Our modern technology allows us to compensate for diminished hearing.
We have an entire drawer in the kitchen full of various spices. My sense of taste has changed over time, but I can compensate through the adroit use of those spices. My mom taught me how to cook. Over time, I have developed into a good enough cook for Greta to allow me full use of the kitchen and even enjoys some of what I prepare. Half of that spice drawer is taken up with my spices. The other half contains what I refer to as ‘apple pie spices’ (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) which Greta uses to bake for Coffee Hour on Sundays.
Our various senses do change over time. Some improve, some do not. Some become more acute, some less so. But, we can compensate and we can accommodate. I don’t think that compensation or accommodation is what the Bible is suggesting. I don’t think Jesus was suggesting corrective lenses or hearing aids. I believe Jesus was telling his disciples and those who heard his message to use the gifts our Creator God had given them to grow closer to God. To use our gifts in service to the giver.
I believe Jesus’ message is primarily applicable to that alleged 6th sense, common sense. Jesus was far to polite and diplomatic to tell the disciples . . . and all of us to “use your God given brain for something more than separating your ears far enough apart to allow you to hear stereophonic sound.”
In seminary, we learned about both general revelation and special revelation. Jesus was telling the disciples, audience and us to look at the world around us. Look at the flora and fauna, look at all the creatures, listen to the sound of God’s created Creation, look at and listen to the work of the Creator, God self-disclosed and self-communicated in Creation. Find God. Then, maybe you will ask, along with the psalmist, “8:3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? 5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.”
Stay safe, look and listen, trust God,
Pastor Ray