Proper Sensuality

We live in a world where the senses are pounded to death, and in the wrong way. For every right and good thing that our senses can perceive, there is a counterfeit that beckons. As the age of technology has advanced to please senses, the counterfeits abound even more. In Christ, however, our soul is not the only thing redeemed. He also redeems the senses if we let Him. Our eyes can be transformed in what they want to see as the heart is changed. How do I know? We have experienced a little of it.

A couple weeks ago we were watching the fall colors at their peak near sunset. The crescent moon was getting brighter as the day turned to night. We decided to watch and sketch the moon, but both of us were seeing the fall colors in our mind’s eye that we had observed only an hour earlier. So we finished our sketches, but then took the time the following day to add some of the colors from our back yard. You will see Linda’s sketch first, then mine.

We could have watched a movie or engaged in any other kind of media, but most of it has the wrong kind of sensual draw. What He has made, however, is different. It is usually quieter. It takes more time because you have to have a settled heart to stop and observe. But that is precisely what He wants. How do I know?

Read Job.  Consider these statements that God makes:

Have you ever…shown the dawn its place?   38:12
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain…?    38:25
Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?    38:31
Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn?     39:1
Do you give the horse its strength, or clothe his neck with a flowing mane?  39:19

Our mighty God observes the intricacy of every thing we see and every process we observe. He knew Job also observed these things, but perhaps he had forgotten the Author of it all. And we also forget, getting caught up in not seeing the right things but seeing those things that gives the word “sensuality” a distinctively negative connotation. It was never meant to be that way. There is only One that can change our propensity to indulge in the wrong use of senses.

So when we sketched the other evening, it was a special time, but not just because of what we saw, but because He has been so merciful and patient to change things inside us. The more He changes those inner things, the more we see rightly. Then we have proper sensuality.