A taste! When it comes to reality, that’s all we get, is a taste. We only have five senses. I’m sorry, but given the size and breadth and complexity of the universe, that’s not enough to experience all of reality. Even those five senses are limited in their capacity to a minute fraction of the range or realm of that sense. For example, our eyes are able to detect only a small fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, what we call visible light. Every sense we have has only a limited range within which it operates.
Stop and smell the roses, and then realize that what you are smelling in that single moment is one billionth of the mesmerizing fragrances that are in the air. You are sampling only a mere fraction of reality at that place and time.
We are limited to five senses. Consider the cosmos! Think about the extent and diversity of life on the earth, then consider the seemingly infinite universe, filled with galaxies, stars, and planets. Only five senses!
Animals that we consider inferior or less developed than us (I think that is every animal!) have senses that we don’t have. Birds and bats and other animals (even sea urchins!) have the ability to navigate by sensing the Earth’s magnetic field. Dolphins and whales and bats can use a kind of sonar to detect objects they can’t see with their eyes. Fish can sense pressure waves and vibrations in the water through their lateral line to detect prey or predators or other water movements.
Not only are we lacking in full sensory capabilities, but our processing ability is limited. As sophisticated as our minds are, they are lazy and use dualisms (either/or rather than both/and) and categorization methods (stereotypes, generalizations) as short cuts in order to cut down on analytical time and delays in decision making. These dualistic and categorization methods lead to biases and prejudices that harm our relationships and prevent us from appreciating the true diversity and intelligence inherent throughout the human species and all living things.
We sample only a taste of what is real. We don’t have the human ability to sense all of what God has created. But after our physical life, in heaven, we will have full sensory capabilities to perceive all of reality. And we will be amazed and awed by it all, incredulous at what we thought was reality, to find out that it was a drop in the ocean of reality.
Stop and smell–and taste and see and hear and touch the universe–and realize that what we are missing is as real as what we perceive, and it is more amazing and beautiful than we can conceive, and give praise to the Creator of it All.
Your Lay Leader,
Doug