Humanity and Colony Creatures

We are each a colony creature. Cells form tissue, tissue forms organ or bone, organs and bones form a person. And really, what is a person? An organization of meat bristling with sensors by which we interpret the world. Or at least part of the world.
Our senses are limited. We see in a narrow bandwidth, hear in a narrow bandwidth, touch/feel at indiscreet levels. We only have four taste sensations which blend to a narrow spectrum, and smell at an even narrower level. Further, our senses combine in several ways that we aren't aware of. To wit, when temporarily deafened by using an impact hammer without ear protection, I deemed potato chips "stale" because apparently we use hearing as much as "feel" to determine if something is crunchy.
We are in deep error when we think we "know" the world we're in, and we make logical missteps when we think things don't exist because they don't fall in our narrow field of sensation (consider a shark, which has some sort of magnetic sense--we can't even perceive it enough to comprehend it!). Further, limited by our understanding, we can't invent things to detect objects beyond our comprehension and wouldn't recognize readings if we could.
That makes atheism pretty foolhardy. I've read some nasty commentary about how stupid the idea of "God" is when if He existed He'd do this and this and that... Fascinating how a superior being who refuses to work to our wishes is deemed not to exist. What hubris we lowly colony creatures display in demanding from God, rather than simply thanking Him for our incredibly complex cells and tissues. Despite the obvious design of cells (just not how we'd design them), because we as a species prefer metal, wood, and digital science, we think "wet" design isn't possible. The sciences God develops in dips below our menial senses. Is that a shortcoming of God's or of ourselves?

Give Thanks!

In between feast preparations I reflect on the overwhelming bounty God has graced us with. Used to be I'd feel a bit guilty about enjoying enough food to feed a small country in a single sitting. No longer.

There are people across the globe suffering horribly. I and mine are not among them. God calls each of us to care for those less fortunate, each in a different way. For some people that means volunteering to serve the homeless a warm meal on Thanksgiving. For others, it's serving the homed with a scrumptious meal while doing their part throughout the year for those who need help, some in big ways, some in small ways. And for still others, it's caring for people who don't need physical help but do need friends, hospitality, and God's love.

The Bible shows God to be a God of feasts. No, He's not a party animal, He is a master of symbolism. God's grace and unending bounty is obvious in most American's lives. He delights in us realize that. As I reflect on a grace-filled life, starting with a wonderful family of origin, great friends, wonderful churches, good jobs, terrific wife and children and dogs, I also have to look at the things I counted as suffering. Bone disease, bullies, a faulty moral compass that led me to embarrassing and often horrifying actions... and then I realize these things shaped me into the "container" who would and could receive God's individualized grace.

Extrapolating from that, is it such a stretch that the downtrodden are being similarly shaped? Those who believe God can look forward to tremendous grace, sometimes here, sometimes not until eternity. And even within tremendous suffering, grace abounds. I read of a father who, during the typhoon "over there" lost sight of his daughter. In the throng of fleeing people, he was shoved one way and another, right back to his crying daughter. He praised God, seeing not the typhoon but a caring Father.

Those in poverty should not be ashamed; those of us with an embarrassment of riches shouldn't be ashamed either. God give to us all. Whatever we have, whatever we don't, give thanks.