Unseen realities

By LEON YOUNGBLOOD

The following comes from the Facts for Knowledge Facebook group, and I readily admit some of it I do not understand:

“The human eye can only see between 430-770 Thz.  Our ears can only detect sound between 20Hz-20KHZ.  These ranges make up a fraction of the total sound & light frequency range.  This means there is a lot going on around us that we can not see or hear.”

BRIAR CIRCLE

All right, I’ll buy that.  I’m not entirely sure what these Thz, Hz and KHZ things are, but they come with the package and can’t be taken out.  That the human range of “frequencies” make up mere fractions of their totality—well—I can live with that and be happy.  Whether the fractions are 1-100^th or 99-100ths does not concern me much; but when the postulator says, “This means there is a lot going on around us that we can not see or hear,” I get a little miffed.  It bothers me that invisible and inaudible things are happening virtually under my nose, and I do not know about it!

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Take dogs, for example.  They hear things we can’t.  Bats also hear things we cannot hear, and their abilities enable them to nab insects in flight through echolocation.  When we see the faint glimmer of light from the eyes of animals in the dark, we can rest assured that some of those animals are seeing us better than we see them. Certain creatures can see colors we can’t, and apparently, some can “see” heat.

Air and water in their pure forms are colorless, odorless and tasteless, but they are good modes of transportation for odors and sounds.  Cooking over the campfire at Briar Circle, the air is essential for conveying sound.  The fragrant smell of a camp-breakfast is hard to beat, and the air can carry that scent to a bear a mile away, whose nostrils are designed to hone in on it, and determine if it’s worth walking the mile to investigate.  All that is needed is a few mere molecules of frying eggs or bacon riding gentle breezes to reach the bear with their tempting scent.  If you’ve ever used smelly bait for fish, you will understand this same principle works in water.

Airwaves and photons and things bring sound and light to us, but how they do it is a mystery to me.  I’m thankful that radios, televisions, phones and the like are necessary to catch these waves, though, for imagine how aggravating it would be if we received them without any way to turn them off!  Perhaps we should be thankful we can’t see or hear all that’s going on around us.

But we do need to be aware that it’s there.  I do not know who she was, but on one of the Christian radio stations, I heard a lady state, “Most of reality consist of stuff you can’t see.  Eighty, ninety percent, maybe.”  She was not talking about the limits of human sight and hearing, either.  She was talking about spiritual realities.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul warned his readers, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”—things that were generally unseen by the human eye.

But there was another side to this spiritual realm.  In his 2^nd letter to the Corinthians, Paul shrugged off the afflictions he was receiving because of his faith: “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.  For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Regarding unseen realities, sometimes we do not see what we’re seeing.  In his Gospel, the Apostle John records Philip (after wrestling with certain insecurities) asking Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Jesus’ response included the well-known statement, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”  It was significant that the Disciples accepted Jesus as the Messiah, but here, Jesus claims to be God.  We can’t begin to imagine how this went through their minds, so we won’t try.

Maybe, if interest warrants, we will take this up again next week.  Meanwhile, maybe we can contemplate unseen realities and figure out which ones are with us every moment we live.  Afterall, they’re more important than we realize.

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