Sense.

Music is one of the most influential things in my life as well as many of those around me. I love to sit and listen, to sing and to worship and music plays a key role in this. I know this generation seems to have a great deal of an attachment to music and so we all seem to relate to the idea that music moves us. I so often think about what I would do without it.

I know I think too much but since I rather enjoy it doesn't usually bother me. Don't get me wrong there are nights I lay awake or early mornings my mind is churning over something and it prevents me from rest. Any other time though I really like pondering. One of these reoccurring thoughts I have is what life would be like if I had to loose one sense of the five, (common sense is not one of these.) Which one could I bear to live without? Just like a key in an ignition music usually brings this thought about as I can hardly imagine what life would be like without it. So, I sit there and go through the benefits of each of the five senses.

Sight. How important sight is. The blind or being blind would limit a persons capabilities so very much. You would however no longer deal with the sin that comes with worrying about how you look any longer for your ability to see would no longer be limited to the eyes but would change entirely. How great that would be, as you no longer could compare yourself to the world of people who are breathtaking in their physical appearance and features. Shopping would be simplified in the manner that you would not be worried about how clothes looked or being in fashion but only how they felt on you. Oh, and you would never go through the pain of shopping in the fashionable stores where all the girls are blonde with "perfect" hair, makeup, fashion and bodies. Sight.

So what then of beauty? I am no longer talking about people when I use this term or not necessarily talking about people. What about the beauty we see in the world? The sun and the way that it rises and falls on creation, what of that? What then of the stars in the heavens, the moon and the ocean with rolling, crashing waves that causes us to draw our breath and hold it for a moment? The things God has created for us to enjoy. And what then of the beauty in people? The way someone we like smiles, or blushes, or just looks our way. Not they way the world sees beauty but the way we see beauty in the people we love and the way we long to know them and their features. Sight seems important not for just getting around but for seeing what is before us. So I think I must not be so willing to give up sight for the ability to hear.

Touch. Wow, what in the world would I do without the sense of feeling in my skin? Without touch we would loose the capability of feeling physical pain. This would be both good and bad. How would we know when we touched something to hot or cut ourselves or even pulled a muscle? Though we would not feel the pain we would not know we hurting either. If you don't know you’re sick you don't go to a physician. Oh, but how much we would loose. What would it be like not to feel a hug or someone holding your hand? How could we possibly not feel the sand and the sugary texture of it between our toes? The water and the way it glides around you and makes you feel so small and helpless, the wind as it whips across you skin and blows your hair everywhere you do not want it to. The heat from a fire as it flickers in the cold, icy night. The way it feels to curl up with a soft blanket or silky pillow. Yes, we must not give up our sense of touch.

Then there is smell. This is such an amazing sense as it actually affects our sense of taste as well. Granted there are many things that are not pleasant to smell at all and these we would not mind the loss of. How about the way a rose smells? I would not want to loose that. Or the salt in the wind when near the ocean, or cookies when they are baking or the rain when it falls from the sky. Even the ability to smell perfumes and lotions and the way smelling them on someone else brings back memories. Smell plays a huge roll in triggering our memories. Have you ever walked into a store and smelled a cologne on someone that immediately made you think of someone else? Or how about when you smell something cooking that reminds you of something from home? I guess if I had to loose a sense I would rather loose this ability over hearing.....I think.

Taste. If you loose your sense of smell you have also lost about 75% of your sense of taste automatically. This sounds funny but it is true. You know when you smell glue (don't take this the wrong way I am talking about the white Elmer's glue you use a lot in arts and crafts growing up) and you get a sense of what it tastes like though never actually trying it. Or the same thing with grass, I get that sense of what grass and dirt taste like though would never put in it my mouth to test my taste buds out. The only real thing you would loose from loosing taste is the ability to know what food and drink taste like. To some that is of course the world but when I am again thinking about sound or taste I still think I would keep hearing. Then again I would miss many, many flavors but think of how easy it would be to eat healthy all the time.

Then, there is sound. One thing that I still stand in awe of. Though much of the communication between people is non-verbal, I am extremely communicative. I not only love to talk but love it when people are excited to tell me things as well. I rejoice with people, cry with people, laugh with people, sing with people and just about revolve around sound. Music. I can't imagine anything that moves me as much as a persons words. The way a melody or beat makes you want to dance, to rejoice, to sit and be quiet and listen intently. The way you can feel a beat and the way it makes you move. Music stirs people to action creating desires, feeding them and moving them emotionally in a way that seems unmatched my other things. Think about the passion behind music. The ways that it makes you think and actually feel. Even the way someone’s fingers slide across the strings of a guitar gives me goosebumbs. I thank God so often for my ability to hear for I enjoy it most of all. To sing to dance, to hear, to listen, and to let it touch you, to let it stir up imagery that you would never dream of. Even the poetry found in songs or prayers. Here are a couple lines from a prayer in book I am reading:

.......I enter thy presence, worshipping thee with godly fear,
awed by thy majesty, greatness, glory,
but encouraged by thy love.
I am all poverty and guilt,
having nothing of my own with which to repay thee,......
....I bless thee that great sin draws out great grace,
that, although the least sin deserves infinite punishment
because done against an infinite God,....
......Strengthen me to give thee no rest
until Christ shall reign supreme within me,
in every thought, word, and deed,
in a faith that purifies the heart,
overcomes the world, works by love,
fastens me to thee, and ever clings to the cross.

And that is a prayer. There are short lines in songs that hit me everytime I hear them. One example is a line in a Shawn McDonald song. Everytime I hear it, I want to bow before my God though it is short.

....."fall to my knees and I'm begin' you please oh Lord, won't you take me make me,
new from the inside out I wanna shout out your name, I NEED YOU."