Hi Friend,

The phrase “keeping it real” was once in vogue and still pops up from time to time.  My college philosophy professor might ask, “What is ‘real’ to the person making the statement?”  If you experience something with one of the five senses, it’s real.

Is there a reality beyond the five senses?  If a blind person doesn’t see a car, does that mean the car doesn’t exist?  In fact, one of the first things a sightless person must learn is that what he can’t see can hurt him.  He must become aware that cars exist, so he doesn’t walk in front of one.

We understand that a blind person has limitations because we can see what he can’t see.  But what about folks with normal 20/20 vision?  Are we missing something too? Are there sights we can’t see?

Of course there are!  We can’t see germs, or gravity or even the wind.  In fact, John Link, a physicist at MadSci website, says humans are unable to see MOST of what is around us. It’s not that we can’t see 50 percent or even 10 percent of the physical universe.  He says humans can only see one thirty-five hundredth of one percent of the created world.

Let me put that in perspective.  The History Channel did a series on The Universe in which another scientist demonstrated the concept by imagining all the known strands of light in the world were a movie reel stretching 2,500 miles long. The human eye could see only one frame, about one inch of the movie.  The rest of the reel would be invisible to us.

In the “real” world, for example, humans see a dandelion as yellow.  But there is a second color that is visible to most pollinating insects that enables them to recognize the flower. Other flowers have colors that create patterns within the petal which are invisible to human beings.

We can’t see ultra-violet rays, or infrared rays or even radio wavelengths.  But we can build instruments that translate these wavelengths into a spectrum visible or audible to humans.

It’s fascinating that most of nature is a kaleidoscope of color that we, as mortal beings, will never see.  We are, in fact, blind beings stumbling through an awesome world.

What will we see when we are transformed from mortal to immortal?  It gives a new depth of meaning to the words of the Apostle Paul, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—“   (1 Cor. 2:9)

While the thoughts are flowing, let’s speculate for a moment.  John tells us that Jesus was the “true light” (John 1:9) that came into the world.  But that’s not all; he also says that he “gives light to everyone” that believes in him.  Jesus was a spectrum of light that was invisible to the world, and He gives that light to his followers.

You do understand, don’t you, that there is a light that emanates from you? In fact, Jesus says “you are the light of the world”. (Matt. 5:14) Maybe that light carries a spectrum that is only visible to the angelic realm.  But somehow you are known by the Father because the Spirit of Jesus shines through you.

Until next time,

Jim O’Brien