Celebrating your senses

Do you make use of your senses in a way that celebrates life?

Or do you merely use your senses in a strictly functional way, using them only to avoid potentially dangerous situations?

Going about your day on auto pilot, rushing around, your brain too distracted to really register all the different sights, sounds,tastes, smells and sensations, your spirit completely unmoved by your environment.

If it is the latter, then you are not using your gifts, your senses and your intellect, to experience life to its fullest potential.

You are also not giving thanks to the Creator for His bountiful gifts in the way that thanks should be given.

St Irenaeus said, "The glory of God is man fully alive."

If we believe in God and we see Him in our lives, then this relationship we have with our Father gives us life and enables us to enjoy His goodness when we participate in life, never forgetting that He is the source of all activity throughout creation.

Can we claim to be fully alive if we do not seek and find beauty in all things, good and bad?

Is it possible to have a vibrant, intimate relationship with Jesus when we do not engage our senses and move toward what is true and what is good in life?

So next time you watch the sun set, smell your mother's stir-fried ginger chicken wafting through the air, hear the delighted laugh of a child, feel the cool breeze caressing your skin or savour the last sip of coffee on your tongue, stop and contemplate, live in the moment and say a small, quick thank you to the One who made all this possible.

Then you will come to your senses like the blind man who was given the gift of sight by Jesus and start seeing with the spiritual sight of faith... and celebrate.