THE CHILDREN'S FIVE SENSES

The young people at Ephesus listening to the reading of Paul's epistle to the assembly there would learn that the believer should grow up to Christ in all things. In Him we have the perfect standard of what is wellpleasing to God. Just as the growth of our natural body is served by five distinct senses, so too is our 'moral being' which receives impressions and governs our thoughts and actions. These senses have to be well exercised by habit to enable us to tell good from evil.

A miracle said by the Jews to be reserved for their Messiah, or Prince, was the giving of sight to those born blind. One whose eyes were opened by Jesus said that no such thing had been heard of since time began! But by the same divine power believers have the great favour of seeing things as they are in God's sight, having the eyes of their hearts opened and the true light to see by.

It would be difficult to say whether sight is more precious than hearing. The soul of Job, an old man, was indeed more affected when God was revealed to him than when he had only heard of Him. However Samuel, when quite a young boy, had ears keen enough to hear God patiently calling him by name, so that he became an example of the way in which faith comes by hearing. Like him we should early learn that to answer to God's call leads to our blessing and to a part in His service.

By means of touch many people were healed when Jesus was here but perhaps a greater favour was when He Himself touched persons as was the case even with little children. Who would not have sought such blessings? Yet now that Jesus is risen and glorified these things still take place by the prayer of faith and by the Spirit of God.

The senses of smell and taste are a protection from what is corrupt, or bad, and also the means of enjoying what is delicate and refined. No doubt for these reasons Paul, in writing of the truth of the one body in Christ, asked "if all hearing, where the smelling?" The earliest mention of this sense in Scripture is that God smelled an odour of rest offered up by Noah after the flood. We too have the privilege of enjoying in our spirits the sweet savour and excellence of the sacrifice of Jesus in its many aspects.

The apostle Peter assumed that those to whom he wrote had tasted that the Lord is good and kind; he had surely done so himself This is one of the believer's earliest blessings and it should make us as eager for the word of God as a new-born babe is for its simple and natural food. Are you?

J.C.Evershed