A Saturday Garden Stroll

I never cease to be amazed at how our garden in the African bush can continually surpise and delight me!

Today I heard high pitched shrieking and went outside to investigate…

....only to discover monkeys everywhere, maybe around 20 of them or so, including several scruffy 'teenagers', and a mother grabbing her very young shrieking baby back toward herself and getting him to 'hang on' as she ran off with him clinging to her belly. 

I proceded to chase the other monkeys off the car and out of the garden, but one didn't run off quickly and looked a little panicked.  

As I got a little closer I realised there was a reason for her slowness….

I noticed she had a very tiny newborn, 

But then realised it wasn't just one baby, it was twins.

I think I must have stumbled upon a her very soon after delivery as she showed signs that may have been the case. But her two babies looked very weak and very, very new. As long as I stayed a reasonable distance away from her she didn't run off, although she looked like she wanted to.  But it meant I did get some good photos.  When she had finished picking some morsels to eat for herself she grabbed her little ones and went and sat in a low tree branch. She also wasn't moving too energetically and seemed to be struggling a bit trying to carry two babies. At one stage I wasn't sure if her babies were even alive, but then I saw each of them voluntarily move, and the tiniest of them did have his eyes open just a little bit.

I don't know if they will survive, but their mummy was trying her best to take good care of them, and it was rather special to get such a long time of watching them.

Having got the camera out, I thought I would take a further gentle stroll around the garden and see what it had to show me at this crossroads of seasons - the end of the dry season, with a first storm yesterday that brought a short soaking downpour.

Let me show you some of what I found…

Firstly - just to show you how dry some of our plants get over the dry months - this succulent, normally so full, smooth and fat and green, is currently not only stressed and red, but shrivelled and wrinkled!

Next - a fascinating assortment of dry open seed pods - various shapes, sizes, colours and patterns…. more examples of the creativity of the Creator!

Here is a hoodia plant wide-open seed pod (it is also in a state of stress from the dry weather and lacking its usual green colouring - but instead is showing the beautiful 'white dotted' effect on the edges!

This succulant is the same one that was a brilliant white stalk a few months back - that the sunbird was photographed on, now it is tipped with a subtle burgundy...

Here is the dry flower stalk of a native bulb with its stylish light browns, creams and black...

This is the seed stage of the very pretty orange flower that you saw butterflies photographed on in a previous blogpost

Here is a frangipani seed pod with its patterned arrangement of compartments inside

But not everything is dull and dry - the flowers are beginning to bloom too, and looked so beautiful in the afternoon sun...

And birds and squirrels are busy trying to find a mate - this little guy had to fight off a competing suitor this afternoon and in the process fanned his tail and revealed a brilliant copper colour hidden away, but he was too quick for me to catch a photo in the midst of his display.  Hopefully he will win over his lady without too much more ado!

Then as I headed indoors a heard the familiar squirrel mating call and looked up as he was scurring to the very top of the stone parapet on the end of our house where he continued his wholehearted efforts for quite a while!  There was no "mrs" in sight so he is going to have to work a bit harder for some time yet!

So many opportunities to once again marvel at our God's amazing creation, and the reminder that as the seasons change, that His hand is still directing and sustaining this earth's systems. 

We can trust Him!

Word watch: Worship.....Part 2

Replacing the Misplaced

How often have you seen a church notice board say on it something like 'Worship service 9am'?

How often have you heard church musicians referred to as the 'worship team'?

Have you heard a Pastor encourage fathers to lead their families in a daily 'family worship' time?

It seems we have relegated the general use of our term 'worship' to what Christians do once or twice a week when they are together in their building, or at least together somewhere.

Now it is certainly true that these times include worship - or should.  

But our whole New Testament covenant life is one where worship of God is supposed to be happening everywhere and anywhere. 

 All of life is worship, and it should be to Yahweh - The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

In fact no matter who we are we worship something or someone - we are born and created to worship and worship we do not fail to do…..

- we all centre our lives around whatever we think will give us meaning and purpose and significance in life. Our focus and goal might be love, sex, family, success, work, wealth, popularity, fame, pleasure, fitness, education, travel, beauty or fashion. Whatever it is, we will put the achievement of it in a place of value, honour and priority in our lives.

….what we might fail to do however, is give our worship to the One who alone deserves it - the One who made us and redeemed us.

We don't have to go to any 'special place' or a physical temple building to go where God is, to worship and bow down to him, rather it is a heart attitude of honour and submission to Christ as God and King, as we worship in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24).  We don't have to go 'to church' in order to pray, like they do on Downton Abbey…..or even here in Africa where time and again I hear people put special emphasis on 'going to church to pray'.

Right now you are probably saying, 'But I do believe worship is more than at church'.  

But does your verbal terminology reflect that view?

Either we need to be talking a lot more - a very lot more - about worship in our interaction outside the once-a-week-gathering, or else we need to stop using the word 'worship' around the concepts of the gathering and its music, and at least change the term on our church signage.

There are so many mis-conceptions about worship

• I had someone recently say to me after going through a difficult time that they just hadn't been able to worship.  Yet I was watching this person choose to humbly submit themselves to God's will through tears. Yet because they were finding it hard to sing, they believed they hadn't worshipped! How sad.

• I hear others say they had a good time of 'worship' this morning in their quiet time and they will name the CD and songs they were listening to and singing along with and how it helped them really 'connect' to God, as if that was what constituted 'worship' for them. What are deaf people supposed to do?

• I hear others comment that they noticed someone was really 'worshipping' because they observed hands raised and eyes closed - does that mean those whose eyes are open and hands are not raised are not worshipping?.

• Some think that worship means warm fuzzy feelings and a sense of euphoric happiness - that's probably more mystical than Christian.

• Some people mistake awe for worship - we can be in awe looking out to the stars at night, but it isn't worship of God unless it translates to a desire to submit our lives to the One who created it all and who is so much bigger and more powerful than us!

• I don't hear anyone say that they had a great time of worship as a mother cleaning floors and dishes, or as a policeman catching criminals, or as a receptionist answering telephone calls, or even counseling a depressed unemployed father.

We are apt to relegate 'worship' to a very narrow category that never impacts or intersects with the world and community and life on a daily basis or reflects the truth that worship is about the honour attitude of the heart. It's not about having the emotional energy to sing, or to feel 'connected' or to be in a physical position of hands raised and eyes closed or for that matter even necessarily heads bowed.  While each of these may accompany a worshipful heart on occasion, they are actually outward, secondary and even superficial indicators of worship.

Remember God says "man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart" and He also said of people who appeared to be doing all the outward appearances of worship, "You honour me with your lips but your hearts are far from me", and in the book of Amos 'remove from me the noise of your songs"  (1 Samuel 16:7, Matthew 15:8, Amos 5:23) A corporate gathering or outward visible action is not the definition of worship.

Worship is about the heart, not just the outward action.

There was certainly no large corporate gathering when Abraham went up the mountain with Isaac for the sacrifice and said they were going to 'worship'.  It almost certainly was not accompanied with excited dancing and singing and praise.  This was an occasion of rigorous, deliberate trust and obedience. Abraham viewed this as a time when his own heart desires would have to 'bow' to the desires of the One who he knew should be given the highest honour, no matter what the personal cost or whether he understood or not.

Then if we jump to the New Testament, Jesus explained to the woman at the well, that worship is not about coming together at a place, its about a heart attitude toward God rooted in truth and in the power of the Spirit.  True worship is about about bowing our will to God's will and allowing the Spirit of God to fill our hearts (the seat of our very being, our will, our desires, our mind, our emotions) in every facet of daily life, firmly rooted in the truth of the Word that the Spirit enables us to understand and live out. 

We, as the modern church, have taught the world by our language that 'worship' happens 'at church' or is only related to our private activity in our own home.  It is separate from the surrounding community.  It is separate from daily life.  We have kept our 'worship' separate from the world, and now the world is acting according to the way we have trained them over decades, and they are simply saying that if that's how we are, we should keep it that way. 

We have made 'worship' an 'act' or a 'ritual' rather than a heart attitude and all of life reality!

We need to take greater consideration as to how we use words, what we communicate to others with our words and how our words even impact our own perspectives on our faith.

We have taught society by our words and our lives that being a Christian is primarily about 'Sunday worship at church'.   

Instead we should be teaching them that being a Christian is about being part of the church of believers who's lives have been transformed and who are living no longer for the honour of themselves, but for the honour of God their Creator and Saviour and the true honour of the people he created, as they worship their Father in Spirit and in Truth in every area of life.

When we do our work well as a cleaner, 

or teach algebra to a class of teenagers, 

or care for the cancer patient, 

or serve at the supermarket checkout with a smile 

or help the truth to be heard in a legal case, 

or be patient and gentle with your kids in the home, 

or deal kindly and firmly as a police officer,

 or with integrity as a politician, 

or whatever your daily activity involves….and someone notices and asks how you manage to do that?…..answer by saying its because its just part of worshipping God with every area of my life.

This is not to say that people are not genuinely worshipping the Lord when they say they worship 'at church'.  We also need to be sensitive to how people have come to use terminology. God sees hearts, and sometimes hearts have only had certain terminology in their teaching by which to state what they want to express. We must be careful not to be merely condemnatory but corrective, bringing people from traditional to biblical frameworks.

Meanwhile, let's consider taking the word 'worship' off our church notice boards where it is the only time the watching world sees it and they are very much getting the wrong idea.  And while we are at it, lets consider ceasing from using the term to describe those who lead music when we gather together as a local church group, and speaking of worship as if it belongs exclusively within the domain of music. And lets start using the word in relation to everyday life and allow its meaning of honour to permeate all that we do.

Worship is not about singing on a Sunday, its about bowing our will to God's will as we give Him the highest honour with our whole lives!

To quote Kay Arthur: 

"To worship God is to respect and honour Him for who He is."

If we are to get our minds out of a rut, cease giving the watching world the wrong idea, and truly honour God as we bow our hearts and will to His heart and will, we have to begin in this foundational area of our use of the term 'worship'.

ps. it is a good thing to allow the majesty of creation, the truth of God's word in His word and expressed in song to lead and prompt our hearts to a place of honouring God rightly with true worship - take a few moments to read the truth in the words in the picture above set on a background of a starry sky, and be prompted to once again have your hearts bow to the One who is to be honoured and praised.

Word watch: Worship.....Part 1

photo credit

Words matter!

In this era of the debates over transgenderism and same-sex marriage, I am reminded of how those who are antagonistic toward Christianity have made some interesting comments about how Christians should keep their religious practices of worship amongst themselves.

What emerges is that society is making a distinction between worship and daily life. 

But is this a problem the secular world has come up with? Maybe not.  Maybe society has just followed what the church has been doing for decades.  

Words matter.  They have meaning and they have application and consequences. And the church has been making a distinction between worship and daily life practice/belief without thinking about either biblical truth or community consequences.  We have possibly been using contempory church jargon over biblically faithful terminology and truth.

What do I mean?  

'Worship' is one of the most common words in modern Christianity.  Yet I'm not sure we are using it rightly or really know what it means.

The world sees it primarily as a religious term, and these days the church uses it primarily in the context of a Sunday gathering or even more narrowly in relation to the music and singing part of the Sunday gathering.

Culturally in the West, the primary context in which we think of worship is religious, such as is revealed in the first definition given in the Oxford Dictionary: 

The feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.

It was encouraging to find reference in the Cambridge Dictionary also of the word usage in the category of worship in non-religious contexts giving the following examples:

"As a child I worshipped my older brother"

"We are in an era of fitness and health worship"

The English Word

The Old English word 'worship' originates from usage around the 11th or 12 Century in the form of 'woerdscipe'. You may have heard someone say 'worship means worth-ship' and this truly  is where the word comes from.

worship (n.) 

Old English worðscip, wurðscip (Anglian), weorðscipe (West Saxon) "condition of being worthy, dignity, glory, distinction, honor, renown," from weorð"worthy" (see worth) + -scipe (see -ship). Sense of "reverence paid to a supernatural or divine being" is first recorded c. 1300. The original sense is preserved in the title worshipful "honorable" (c. 1300).

worship (v.) 

c. 1200, from worship (n.).

To gain a sense of the word use and context at the time, we should look at how it was used outside of the church as well as inside. Worship is not some unique 'Christian' or 'religious' word, although it has morphed into that meaning in our modern world. It was a word that simply meant ot give rightful honour to someone who has a posiiton or quality of being worthy of honour and respect.

In times past the term 'Your Worship' was used to address a judge, and in some places in the UK the term is still used for magistrates.  'The Right Worshipful' is also still used for adressing the Mayor of the town or city in places in India, UK and Australia.

It has been used by old English writers such as Chaucer and Shakespeare and Dickens:

In Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," the lovestruck knight Arcita is banished from the dukedom of Theseus, but he sneaks back in and disguises himself as a servant in the household of Emily, the woman he longs to be with. Arcita gains such a reputation throughout the dukedom as a noble person that Theseus' advisors recommend promoting him from servant to squire. In Chaucer's fourteenth-century words, the advisors tell Theseus to "put him in worshipful service."

"Worshipful service" is Middle English for something like "noble employment" or "honorable work"--a job fit for someone of good social standing and virtue. This archaic meaning of "worshipful" reminds us that in Middle English, "worship" could still mean "dignity," "honor," or "reputation." These meanings were related to the root of the word "worship," which is still partially visible today--it was the Old English "weorth," meaning "worth." In its earliest days, "weorthscipe" was literally "worthness," the appropriate treatment of something or someone of worth. The meaning of "dignity" for "worship" lasted at least until Shakespeare's time, when "your worship" could be used as a polite term of address, like "your majesty," as in this line from The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Will't please your worship to come in, sir?"

In Scripture

Our English word 'worship' is the word that was chosen by the translators for the Hebrew and Greek words (hishtachavah, and proskuneo respectively) which literally mean 'to bow down'.  

In the Old Testament the word is not only used of bowing before God (YHWH) but also of people, simply as a sign of honour and respect. The outward act of bowing in honour is meant to express the inward attitude of bowing in honour.  

• In fact the first use of the word in Scripture is when Abraham 'bowed down' to the three men(angels) who came to visit him.  (Genesis 18:2) 
• Abraham bowed down before the people of the land in Genesis 23. 
• Jacob and his family 'bowed down' in respect to Esau in Genesis 33. 
• In the story of Joseph, when he tells his dream to his brothers about how their sheaves of wheat would bow down to his, this same word is used, and again when the brothers actually 'bowed themselves down' in Genesis 42, 43. 
• The same word is used again when Abigail bowed before King David (1 Samuel 25), and Ruth bowed before Boaz (Ruth 2:10).

We could say that instead of taking a literal translation route, a dynamic route was taken by the translators - meaning for meaning at the time, rather than word for word.  Unfortunately because our English word has changed in meaning over time we tend to apply our current English usage understanding of the word 'worship' onto the biblical words, because our English bibles naturally have the English word in them!!

The Hebrew word "hishtachavah" means to bend down, fall down, bow, give honour, kneel, worship. The word comes from "shachah", which means to bow, bend, be humble, and as Strongs (7812) comment on "Shachah" says: "shâchâh, shaw-khaw', A primitive root; to depress, that is, prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God): - bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship."

While we might assume all kinds of meanings of our word 'worship', in the Old Testament the Hebrew word simply meant to:

 "express respect before elders and family members…and persons who are being honored"

Of course there were times when due to the context of the 'bowing', a follower of God refused to bow to another man, such as Daniel's friends who refused to bow in the context of everyone bowing to the golden statue of the image of Nebuchadnezzar who demanded he be honoured as a 'god'. That wasn't about showing respect for another human being in the earthly leadership role, but a man who was elevating himself to a position solely reserved for YHWH demanding others bow to him as one who wanted to hold a position of supreme diety and authority in the lives of human beings. It would have been a false honouring that displeased YHWH and the word translated worship here is the Aramaic/Chaldee 'segid' (equivelent to sagad in Hebrew, which is only used a few times in the OT and each time refers to false honour/bowing/worship).

And thus even in the Old Testament when the Messiah is prophesied about it is also mentioned that all kings will 'bow down' before Him and all nations serve Him.(Psalm 72:11) And of course ultimately it can be assumed that the one who deserves the most honour - God Himself - will have people bow before Him as the Lord and King (1 Chronicles 29:20)

the Hebrew word "hishtachavah" is not an expression of the acknowledgment of a deity, a divinity, or a divine nature, but that it is outward evidence of an inner acknowledgement of persons in authority and dignitaries, either the Eternal himself, or his messengers, his delegated human agents or other persons of honor.

 http://messianictorah.org/en/pdf/Chapter6.pdf

Again in the New Testament, the Greek word "proskuneo" is not only used of worship of God/Christ, but also of bowing down to other people, such as in Matthew 18:26 when the servant 'knelt' (proskuneo) before the man he was indebted to and asked for patience promising he would repay all!

So the word is more than only a religious term referring to attitude toward a diety.  

It is more an 'honour' term than a uniquely religious term.

So how should we replace what is mis-placed? Keep reading in Part 2 of this blog…...

Parenting with Instruction

photo credit - Wikemedia Commons

This month is Aussie Father's Day (we already had ours in this part of the world in June).

Last week at the Men's Bible Study that my husband leads, they just happened to be doing a study on Fatherhood.

At the end of it he asked for feedback on what the guys learnt.

The common response was that they learnt that if they are going to be godly fathers, they need to actually teach their kids.

They commented that culturally fathers (parents) don't teach, kids are just supposed to know how to behave.  

They said how culturally a father is just the harsh authoratarian and disciplinarian.  They learnt that they can be much more than that, and God wants them to be more than just the one who hands out discipline.

We were once again reminded of the dynamics of honor-shame-orality cultures.  Not only is information for life not to be found in written sources, but often the only 'oral' interaction from parents is an order like 'go and tell your mother I want her to come here', or a reprimand 'don't do that you are shaming us'. 

Even more so, Africa isn't just 'oral' but 'visual'.  Kids are meant to 'watch' what happens in life around them without asking questions, and copy what they see in the hope they will get it 'right' in all the things expected of them.  When they don't do their copying 'right' then the reprimand/shaming occurs to let them know that what they did was not acceptable to the one giving the reprimand.  

So it was exciting to hear these young men say how they had learnt that being a godly dad was different from being a cultural dad.  They didn't have to be aloof and harsh, but they could lovingly teach their kids, so that their kids don't have to go through the uncertainty and confusion and guesswork of just being supposed to 'know' what to do, and not do, in life.

It's always a joy to see lives grow in confidence and peace and knowledge as the truth sets them free to be who God made them to be, not just individually, but relationally in their families too.

Tedd Tripp wrote two books on Parenting - the first called 'Shepherding a Child's Heart' which dealt a great deal with not just giving a child a list of rules to follow but guiding their heart to know how to honour God.  The second book 'Instructing a Child's Heart' dealt more with the intentional process of teaching a child and instructing them in the way they need to go. (Deut 6:1-9)

Both are needed - kids need to know the principle of honouring their parents and honouring God, but they also need to benefit from the fact that God has given a whole book of instruction about what pleases Him and what doesn't.  We don't have to just guess and hope we get it right and wait for a reprimand as the guide to whether what we did was acceptable to God or not.

I recommend the above books, but if you don't have time to read two books just now, here is a link to a short blogpost article giving 7 points to help parents be godly 'instructors' of our children.

Honouring God with our Senses - Part 2

Enjoyment of a good thing can become a bad thing when desire for it overtakes desire for God, or our desire for it turns into a demand. We can be easily persuaded that the 'best' thing to do, is to avoid it all-together.  But while that might appear to be the 'easiest' way to handle the risk of over-indulgence or wrong indulgence of our senses , it may not be the biblical or the 'best' way….. 

Now, I'm not advocating the deliberate courting of temptation, but I am concerned that I can easily employ my own 'system' of resisting temptation by an extreme 'pendulum swing' rather than relying on Christ to enable me to resist extremes.  

The 'best' thing is to work at keeping balance, at exercising self-control, at taking every thought captive and testing/discerning all of life.  But its also the hardest thing to do.

Another way of looking at this is that we very rarely put equal 'weight' on both ends of an issue - we tend to emphasise one over the other in the process of our 'over-reactionary pendulum swing'.  

We have to work hard to give equal 'weight' to each side - a bit like a perfectly matched tug of war that doesn't succeed in being pulled in either direction. The position is not idle or passive but equally active and strong on each end.  Shall we say: 'anti-sin' on one side, but equally 'pro-righteousness' on the other side. In life we find that very hard to do. 

Though it might be hard, it is the required reality for the great part of our Christian walk and I know it will also be the road to experiencing the most joy in what God wants us to experience, and if it is the right way, it is the choice for which we will have the strength of the Holy Spirit......so.....

Though our five senses may be avenues of temptation, before there was sin in this world, God graciously and lovingly gave us our senses as gifts  - and I want to ponder on each, one by one and take the time to enjoy the gifts God has given in our senses. Part of honouring God is worshipping Him with our thankfulness.   

Join with me in focusing on the blessing of our senses and rejoicing in God's wonderful love toward us - saying THANKYOU with me....for….

Sight

What a wonderful gift we have to be able to see.  Just ask someone who is blind.  We can see where to walk, we can see to make sure we choose clothes that match, we can see to operate machines, we can see to enjoy the beauty of flowers, animals, ocean views, electrical storms, brilliant sunrises, a baby's smile and a beautiful bride.  

It is so easy to take for granted the things we can see on a daily basis and the way God has lavishly and over abundantly coloured our world - He could have made it all grey!  Think how 'down' we get after a few days of 'grey weather', but imagine if in our whole life we only ever saw all of life in our world like a B&W photo. 

Scripture likens our salvation to the wonder that it would be to be blind and then to see!

Thank you Lord for SIGHT

Hearing

What a wonderful gift we have to be able to hear.  Just ask someone who is deaf.  We can hear a child's first words, we can hear the songs of birds or a beautiful choir or the rich sounds of a cello or bold sounds of a trumpet or the delicate sounds of an African thumb piano.  We can hear singing, clapping, running streams and pounding waves at the beach or the wind rustling through the leaves on the tree.  As I type I recall the 'thunder' of the sound of the water flowing over the mighty Victoria Falls.  

Hearing is so crucial to our ability to learn and communicate.  

God tells us that if we have ears to hear, we need to be taking time to 'hear' Him.  Scripture also tells us that it is through 'hearing' the gospel that we can be saved.

What can you add to the list....?

Thank you Lord for HEARING

Smell

But what a wonderful gift of smell we have been given. Maybe you don't know anyone who has lost their sense of smell - but it can happen.  It's hard to imagine a world in which there was no pleasant aroma - the smell of a rose, of a roast dinner cooking, of a freshly washed and powdered baby, of the freshness of sun-dried cotton bed sheets, of the wind blowing through the leaves of a lemon scented gum tree or a port wine magnolia bush or our jasmine, or as the leaf of a lavender bush is crushed, or the rind of a lemon is grated.  

I remember the time my husband had an inhalation burn when some gas exploded in a kitchen he was cooking in a few years ago and it damaged (thankfully only temporarily) his nasal passages and caused a loss of sense of smell - not good for a 'chef'! Aromas can make us feel physically sick/nauseous or make us feel relaxed or happy.  Aromatherapy is used in homes and hospitals, in shops and offices. 

God even tells us that our lives are an aroma - we can be a sweet smelling aroma to Him.  We can also be the aroma of life or death to those around us.

What can you add to the list...?

Thank you Lord for SMELL

Taste

How often when we give thanks for a meal do we thank God for the ability to taste it and thus enjoy it!  I remember hearing of someone who no longer had a sense of taste and how much of a horrible chore it was to eat!  God has given us tastebuds so we can actually enjoy the process of eating!  We can enjoy flavours and blends of flavours and have it spur us on to cook all the wonderful food God has given us on this earth, in endlessly creative ways.  Let's praise Him for the ability to taste a sweet cheesecake or a fresh apple or juicy mango or BBQ chicken or grilled steak or the rich sauce of Beef Strogonoff or the spice of an Indian curry or the  blend of flavours on a pizza or the tang of a grapefruit or the bitter delight of dark chocolate or the creaminess of ice-cream or the saltiness of hot chips.  

God uses this understanding of ours about taste to tells us to 'taste and see that the Lord is good'.

What can you add to the list...?

Thank you Lord for TASTE

Touch

What a wonderful gift we have been given with the sense of touch - just ask someone who has leprosy or has been in solitary confinement.  We can touch a starfish at a marine park or pat a dog or stroke a kitten or knead dough,  or feel the warmth of a bath, the holding of a hand or the pat on the back from a friend.  We can feel the softness of a newborn baby's skin or the prickles of a pineapple or wet sand between our toes at the beach or the rough bark of a tree. Touch is also an interesting sense in that is seems to have an extra dimension to it - an emotional and physical well-being dimension. 

Something like massage can actually have physically positive effects on our health and it has been shown that a person's physical well-being is better when they are touched - such that it is ensured that even prematurely born babies now are given as much touch as possible and people in old age homes, cancer and dementia patients have been known to do much better when they can enjoy touch, whether its a hug or patting a dog. I have even found personally with my POTS issues that a gentle stroking touch can lower my heart rate.  

Touch is also the only sense which is enjoyed over the entire body - all the other senses have their 'receptor' on the head/face.

The sense of touch can definitely also be a very real means of protection as it is through touch that we know if something is so hot that it will burn us or too sharp that it will cut us. Linked to the sense of touch is also the sense of pain. (Doctor to leprosy patients Dr Paul Brand once wrote a book   'The Gift of Pain', because we can suffer major damage when we can't feel pain)  

But also linked to the sense of touch is the sense of pleasure.  Touch as a hug or cuddle or squeeze or grasp of the hand or arm around the shoulder can communicate volumes of love to another person, and be received as strong communication from another person. God made us to enjoy, give and receive touch from each other, although of course in appropriate ways that will differ from whether its from a spouse or a parent to a friend or an acquaintance or a stranger.  But none-the-less touch is not something to avoid but to embrace (no pun intended!) 

Jesus' ministry was full of 'touch' and leaves us with an example to follow - especially touching those who the world considered 'untouchable' and blessing them with love and compassion, and the honour of acceptance and love.  

What can you add to the list....?

Thank you Lord for TOUCH.

What an amazing God we have who has blessed us so wonderfully by giving us these five senses to enjoy the world He has given, and give us even greater cause to praise and honour Him!!