Praise for Our Senses

<figure class=" sqs-block-image-figure intrinsic " > As I approach my graduation at Duke Divinity School, I’ve been reflecting on some of my class assignments over the past four years. Many of them were very academic papers comparing historical doctrines, or exploring Christianity in another part of the world (in the class I took we explored Christianity in Latin America).Other assignments were more formative, encouraging us to deepen our personal spiritual life in reflecting not only on our education but on the world around us. &nbsp;For one of our formation classes, our assignment was to write one prayer per day for five days in a row. That was the entire prompt; we could write about whatever God put on our hearts each day.For the last day, I was reflecting on how we often get so tangled up in our day-to-day world that we forget that God’s world is very different. I looked for some Scripture verses to remind me that God really is everywhere if we will just look, feel, smell, hear, and taste, using all our senses.Here’s my prayer from Day 5: Praise for our ability to perceive God through all our senses.Dear heavenly Father, I praise you as you have filled the world with immense beauty. It is only through my senses that I can behold your gracious hand in all these works. It is through my hearing that the mourning dove welcomes me to another orange sunrise. My sense of smell is the most likely to return me to a memory of a forgotten love or a new one just discovered. I am thankful for my ability to touch you when I give or receive a hug from a good friend or help a two-year old tie their shoelaces. It is through taste that I perceive your goodness not only in the fruits of the earth but the spices and flavors that you have given to different parts of the world for us to explore, exchange, and welcome as we give thanks for the nourishment of the plants and animals that give us strength. It is through the magnificent gift of sight that you bring us to our knees as we see the boldness of your created world that inspires us to use our imagination to envision your kingdom here on earth. It is with joy that I sing praises to you, Lord, as there is no one who can love me better or more completely than you do by showing me the majesty of your world. Amen.I hope that no matter what tries to distract us that we will see God all around us and never far away.Blessings, my friend,Agatha&nbsp;Notes: Genesis 8:21, Psalm 34:8, 115:3-8, 119:103; Proverbs 20:12, Matthew 13:16, Mark 4:23, Romans 10:13, 2 Corinthians 2:15 Praise for Our Senses Agatha Nolen Download &nbsp;