Amazing Senses

Humans are born with a vast array of senses that their bodies use to function during normal day-to-day living. God has designed our bodies to work together harmoniously by utilizing all these sense at the same time. Typically, when people think about the senses that we have, they think about the five most famous or well known senses, hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. We have other senses which we don’t even think about such as themoception (the awareness of temperature), nociception (the awareness of pain), equilibrioception (the sense of balance).

These many senses that our God has given to us are absolutely amazing. When you stop to think about just what exactly is taking place every moment of every day, it is just astonishing. Think about some ordinary thing that you do all the time, and then stop to think about how your senses are actually all working together to allow you to accomplish that task.

Picture this: You are at home. Your mother just pulled out some fresh-baked brownies from the oven and sets them on the counter. You smell the sweet aroma given off by the brownies. Your mind takes that smell and then links it to past experiences and makes your tongue remember just how good those brownies tasted in the past. Because you know that they are good, you want to eat one. You reach out to take one, but before even touching the brownies or the pan, through themoception you can tell that they are too hot to grab and will hurt or even burn you if you touch them now. You sit there waiting for the brownies to cool down and when they do, you cut out a piece and pick it up. You see the perfectly colored center of the brownie and feel its soft, moist texture. You bite down on the brownie and you experience the spectacular flavor which your mind remembered and anticipated. You quickly finished the brownie, but you can feel something still on your fingers and realize it is some of the brownie. You close your eyes to savor the sweet moment while you lick the last of the brownie off of your fingers. Even though your eyes are closed and you can’t see your hand, through kinesthesia you know where your hand and fingers are, and you also know where your mouth is and are able to lick the tips of your fingers without even looking at them. As you lick the last of the brownie off your thumb you open your eyes again and reach for another one.

The example of the brownie just shows how much our senses work together without us even realizing or thinking about it. For another example, imagine that you stubbed your big toe on your right food and it hurts when you walk on it. Your body recognizes the pain (through nociception) and sends a message to the brain saying that it hurts to put pressure on that foot. The brain compensates by taking shorter, quicker steps with your right foot and slower, longer steps with your left foot, so that less time is spent with pressure on your right toe. Now you are walking with a limp and your stride is all messed up, but because your body has a sense of balance and movement it instructs your body to lean a little bit more to the left to compensate for the pressure difference, and then continues to make fine adjustments as you walk to keep you from falling down. All this is going on even while you are just walking across your bedroom.

Many more examples continue to astonish me, things as small as hearing a knock on your door. Though you may not be able to explain exactly how you know, you can tell if that knock was on your door, or on the door right across the hall. “It just sounds different.” When driving down the interstate, you can tell that you are slowly gaining on the car in front of you. The car appears bigger as you get closer to it, but since you are gaining so gradually the difference is unnoticeable, yet you still recognize that you are getting closer. You hear a glass break when it is dropped to the floor and instantly turn to the direction where the glass broke even though you didn’t see it fall or know where it was before. Your body measured the volume and time difference between your two ears and recognized that the sound was 60% louder in your right ear as opposed to your left, and also that your right ear heard the crass 3 milliseconds before your left ear. All this is taken, calculated, and acted upon in the fraction of a second it takes you to hear the crash and turn to look at the person who dropped his cup.

The more I think about it the more and more astonished I am about how truly amazing our bodies actually are. Here I have only been focusing on our senses but there are many other things about our bodies that, when examined, bring me to awe at the handiwork of our creator. Even things so mundane as our digestive system or bodily functions such as white blood cells fighting off infections are things which are spectacular to observe and understand, recognizing the master-worker behind them.

Our bodies are studied with great interest and continue to bewilder the most brilliant mind of our day. Computer scientists for example continue to study our sensory perceptions with astonishment and try to replicate them with modern robotics. They have robots today that can even walk on two legs, recognize an object, and pick it up. They have been able to do many, many things with robots and computers, but they will never be able to match the genius who formed the human body, God. We serve a Being who is genuinely worthy our all our praise.

Praising my Creator,

Tim

Isa 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.