At the core of who we are, we are hard-wired with a desire to have our senses engaged, pleasurably so. And not just to a small degree - we want to have full and rich sensations which keep pace with our capacities.
Just think of the vital role in our lives played by simple things such as music, beauty, the flavor of food, and the smells and textures of the world. Without them, wouldn't life be a cruel march to the grave? Simple existence just isn't enough for human kind, we want richness and depth. It's how we're made.
I recently heard a story on public radio about the importance of and distinctions between taste and smell. The doctor being interviewed dealt with patients who had lost most or all of their capability to smell. Most of them due to some kind of brain trauma or disease. This loss was life-altering.
For many of these unfortunate people, two things came as a result; depression and paranoia.
Much of the depression in their lives was tied to food - which, if you think about it, is a major component of daily life, in time, energy and attention. As it turns out, around 90% of food's bouquet, aroma and flavor - most of the experience really - is tied up in smell, not taste. Taste works on a more rudimentary level, dealing with texture and general food information. (salty, sweet, bitter, sour...etc)
Without smell, everything is like oatmeal - the unflavored kind. Bland and unappealing. You and I are probably unaware of just how much joy is derived from the experience of eating. (And may we never know, if loss is the only way to know the extent!)
The paranoia set in, they said, through fears stemming from a lack of info. Did I bathe adequately, or do I have severe body odor? Is this milk bad? Is this meat putrid? What if something catches on fire and I can't smell it? Could there be a gas leak in my house?...etc. You can't be sure about those things without the ability to discern scent, and you can see how paranoia would creep in if you couldn't.
All this just from the loss of the ability to smell!
I write all this to reinforce this thought: Our senses are an absolutely critical component to our well being, and our enjoyment of life.
Now, let me propose something. Something simultaneously horrible and thrilling.
What if you were born with almost no sense of smell (and therefore taste)? You wouldn't really understand what you were missing. Someone could try to explain to you what more there might be. That would be horrible, even if you didn't really realize what you were missing. Horrible because you were so far away from what you are capable of experiencing.
But what if some brain surgeon could fix the problem? What if, after years of eating food that never had taste, the next day you could enjoy the full experience of the culinary arts?! You would be overwhelmed and shocked - and thrilled to no end! Every new food would be a symphony of joy and sensation. (with the notable exception of lima beans, which are irredeemable.) Adjectives would abound!
What if that's us - the whole human race? But the damage is not limited to the sense of smell... it effects every physical sense and every aspect of our lives - physically, mentally and spiritually. This means we might not even know there is anything wrong with us, and we're used to living this way - in a starkly limited capacity. There would be so much more we'd be capable of, if everything was as it should be. Someone could try to explain to us what the full restoration would be like, but the words would fall short since we have so little context. Horrible!
This is the reality of living in a world that is damaged - a world that has been cursed. In biblical terms - a "fallen" world, detached from God and distorted from what it was meant to be. We, because we are also fallen and damaged, don't know what it's like to be fully as we were meant to be either - fully human, meeting our fully capacity physically, mentally and spiritually. Because he knows, God could describe to us what that might look and feel like, but the words would be lost on us. What a sad state.
Here again is the thrilling part: What if we can be restored?
Think about that proposition just in the context of deadened physical senses: If we all experience our senses now at a tiny, tiny fraction of our full capacity, yet we still derive intense joy and pleasure at that meager level, how much more pleasurable and joyful would complete sensation provide? It would be indescribable!
Try to recall the most savory, rich and abundantly wonderful food you've ever had. Relive those first few seconds of experience and sensation, the surprise at its excellence, your delight as more and more of its complexities and flavors reveal themselves to you. You linger on it, savoring that first bite - utterly pleased and satisfied for one delicious moment... but it's only a moment.
What if that moment could be magnified exponentially? A thousand times? A million times? In intensity, quality and duration? Would you want that? Shoot, I would. Words would not describe that level of pleasure - elation, rhapsody, rapture, bliss, thrill, ecstasy? Nothing would capture it.
I want that kind of pleasure bonanza. I really like those moments of deep joy. I'd love more - especially if it was massively better! If that is restoration, that's what I want. Add to that the idea that it's not only our physical senses that would be restored, but every aspect of our person. Everything would be amazingly intensely better and ridiculously shockingly good. All of life would be elation after elation. (and magically delicious)
Next question: when you think of Heaven, what comes to mind? Fogginess maybe? Mistiness, perhaps? (London in Winter?) Boring, probably. But not intensely thrilling. Deeply pleasing, Pervasively enjoyable. (To be fair, there isn't too much detailed description about what Heaven - restored creation and humanity - would look like. Like trying to explain ripe, fresh strawberries to someone whose palate can only perceive texture, perhaps any detailed descriptions would amount to words wasted?)
I wonder about what restoration of our full personhood would look like. The Bible is pretty clear that we live in a world that is cursed, and we are as well. Death and rot pervade. But this is not as it was intended, and God will one day restore things to the way they were meant to be. (for those that love him and want restoration - but it's on His terms.)
I'm theorizing about the extent of our diminished ability to sense and feel, and what the reversal might look like, but here's the real point - shouldn't we want that change? Shouldn't we long for restoration - once we're aware it's available?
(Totally Parenthetical Get-Me-In-Hot-Water-Thought: Sometime, I'd like to have a conversation with the deaf community about their reluctance to restore hearing to deaf folks, and shunning of those who do. I know it's a tight culture of sorts, but, very respectfully, I can't understand why individuals would pass on restoration of their hearing when it's possible. Are there any other disability groups that are so unwilling to let go of what they do not have?? If you gain what was lost, must you lose what you've got?)
Too often most of us are easily satisfied with our present deadened state. We chase after our diminished and broken (and sometimes inappropriate) means of satisfaction and experience when so much more is offered. Perhaps it's ignorance, perhaps it's fear of the surgeon's knife? We tend to not let go of what we have, good or bad, for what is not fully known. But here I am stepping on a popular quote from C.S. Lewis. He is talking about rewards given for behavior here, but I think it dovetails with my point. Why not let him speak:
Indeed, if we consider the"The Weight of Glory" - you should check it out, whatever you may believe.
unblushing promises of reward and the
staggering nature of the rewards promised
in the Gospels, it would seem that Our
Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but
too weak. We are half-hearted creatures,
fooling about with drink and sex and
ambition when infinite joy is offered us,
like an ignorant child who wants to go on
making mud pies in a slum because he
cannot imagine what is meant by the offer
of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily
pleased.
Read the entire piece here: http://www.doxaweb.com/assets/doxa.pdf
In any case, my point is that we tend to have a bland view of what a restored world might hold for us. Peace and tranquility - sure, but we rarely consider that we will be fully ourselves again, and we were obviously intended to experience (if we just talk about the physical stuff) sights, smells, textures, sounds and tastes - far, far, FAR more fully than we do now. We rarely view Heaven in terms of richness, intensity and depth of those sensations, much less everything else. We make it boring. We should want more than we have, because in reality we have so little.
Nor should we want less! Some religions tell us that the way to happiness, or "oneness" or the goal we should strive for should be the abolition of our desires. Whoa! Not what I want! Quite the opposite. To borrow a line from my favorite band; "I want to feel and then some, I have five senses, I need thousands more - at least!" (Over the Rhine, The World Can Wait)
I want more, not less.
But more isn't only what I want. I don't want every feeling and sensation to simply be intensified. What I really want is intensification of joy and reduction (actually elimination) of pain and sadness and evil, not just higher highs and lower lows. (And herein lies a whole big topic of why no everyone goes to heaven and holiness and justice and sin and not-so-fun stuff. )
Is restoration something you want? Do you have a taste for more?
I don't have a tidy wrap up for these thoughts. And, for better or worse, there's more that could be brought out of this line of thought. But I'd love to know a couple things from you (O imaginary readers).
How happy do you want to be? Seriously.
What would you be willing to give to get there?
(Christians) Do you think there is something wrong with desiring happiness, or more intense joy and pleasurable experience? Why/Why not? How could unleashing those desire help? How could they hurt?
When you think of the concept and prospect of Heaven, what comes to your mind? Be honest.
What do you do with the reality of our mixed nature? We want good things, but we're bad too. How do you justify being part of a restored world? How do you know now where true and lasting satisfaction and happiness lie? (there are tons of counterfeits!)
Love to know your thoughts.
