A Blessing for Our Senses

For this final week of “God in Our Senses” I want to close with a blessing for you and for our senses and our bodies. It has been a joy to wonder together about how we might encounter God through sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch. Beloved and blessed are we indeed.

Beloved and blessed are our eyes. Blue, green, brown, or hazel. When our eyes meet the eyes of another we see God. Sometimes our eyes turn away from people in pain or discomfort, the ones who are hungry or in prison. Sometimes we squeeze our eyes shut to keep ourselves safe. Jesus, come and put mud on our eyes that they might be open to see the wonder and beauty of our neighbors in the world around us.

Beloved and blessed are our ears. Created with the smallest bones in our bodies our ears let us hear when our name is called out in a crowd. We hear the loudest thunder claps and the softest whispers. We hear music and birds and footsteps and windchimes. Help our ears grow more and more comfortable with the sound of silence. Tune our ears the sound of your voice, O God.

Beloved and blessed are our mouths. Our tongues and lips and teeth working together to taste the sweetness of fruit, to crunch vegetables, to wake up with coffee, to be refreshed with cool water, and to come alive with the heat of a pepper. Our mouths that share laughter and prayers around a dinner table. O God let us taste your goodness and speak of your faithfulness.

Beloved and blessed are our noses. When we smell we are sometimes transported to simpler times. Scents connected to our dearest memories. Blessed are our noses for reminding us to slow down and not move too quickly through seasons of life. May your Spirit continue to breathe the breath of life into our nostrils. Fill us with delight.

Beloved and blessed are our hands. Increase our curiosity to touch and feel the world around us. Give us gentleness and tenderness in our touch. Let the moments when we hug our loved ones and feel the wind on our faces and feel the morning dew on our toes and the soft fur of our pets keep us tethered to the present moment for it is in this moment that you are present to us.

Beloved and blessed are those who do not have use of all of their senses. You are a God who comes to us through our senses and a God who is not limited by the use of our senses. You are a God who comes to us through a variety of avenues and means so all people might know your love and goodness and grace.

Beloved and blessed are our bodies. In the very beginning you saw that they were good. May we always regard our bodies as good gifts. May we regard the bodies of others as good gifts. Teach us to treat our bodies and the bodies of others with respect and dignity. God, thank you for Jesus, for the incarnation, for the resurrection, and the ascension — the affirmation of our bodies.

Beloved and blessed are we. When we remember our bodies and when we live in our heads. When we engage all of our senses and when we don’t. When our bodies are in chaos and when they are in order. Beloved and blessed are we because you, O God, love us. Amen.