So much of our lives has become digital; much less can be held in our hands or felt with our fingertips. Touching a screen cannot make something seem real. As we scroll through the devices in our hands, our skin longs for the tangible, for what makes life “real.”
Note about the image: A friend sent me this card in April I love this tangible piece of encouragement so much that I have kept it in my Bible and look at it often.
My Mysterious Mind
A colleague recently showed me a previously owned camera she had purchased for her teenage daughter for Christmas. Despite having a camera in her smartphone, this young person wanted a camera that uses film rather than capturing digital images. Purchased used, these decades-old cameras sell for more than their original purchase price because of a trend in young people’s desire for them. The demand outstrips the supply of film, with retailers reporting the film “flies off the shelves” as soon as it arrives. Processing the film requires it to be sent elsewhere, retailers no longer able to develop film in house. I’ve been wondering what is behind this bizarre longing for images captured on film rather than digital images stored in the cloud.
I’m a digital immigrant. With decades of pre-technological experience, I remember taking pictures with film and waiting weeks to know if any of the images were usable. Long after the chance to try again to get a better picture, I cherished the subset of pictures in which there was a special moment preserved. Many of the photographs were too dark or blurry. Among them were the few treasures. Having paid for “double prints,” I still have shoe boxes full of the duplicates. One copy of the “good” photos was used for photo albums; those albums fill a large shelf in our family room.
For me, looking at those tangible photos in albums is nostalgic, but why would a digital native want photos captured on film? Young people’s lives have always been digital for them. The first phone to have a camera was in 1999, with the first iPhone in 2007. For people born in the past 20 years, they have no memory of ever using anything but a phone to take pictures. Not only are the pictures they take digital, but their communications with friends are also digital through text messages and social media messaging. Life isn’t being captured on paper, it is drifting through cyberspace, some of it stored in a server far away.
The longing for film cameras isn’t the only symptom of trends towards the tangible; vinyl records have also experienced an increase in desirability. Though still a small percentage of the music market, global sales of vinyl increased 20% in 2024. I recently perused a bin of new music albums and found new copies of originals I have in my collection. An audiophile told me the sound of music from vinyl is “richer” and “warmer” than digital recordings. I suspect holding a compilation of music in our hands is also tangible in a way access to online music platforms can never be.
The sense of touch is profoundly necessary for human development and sustained well-being. Unlike the senses of vision, hearing, smell, and taste, the sense of touch uses the entire surface of the body. Furthermore, the sense of touch uses five different types of receptors in the skin to produce neural information for light touch, deep pressure, heat, cold, and pain. Our entire body is ready to experience tangible contact with the world. But humans cannot touch what is digital.
A digital life doesn’t feel real because it literally cannot be felt. The increased desire for film cameras and vinyl recordings may be due to hunger pains for what is tangible and not digital. A longing for what is tangible likely represents a deep, human need, something essential for life itself. Replacing digital with the tangible can make life more “real.”
Message of Mystery Acres
For you, Mystery Acres exists only in the words I write and the images I share, all digital. For me, the forest is tangible and life-giving. Thinking about it or viewing pictures is comforting but not at the same richness as being there. I can remember the feel of the breeze; actually experiencing it is so much better. Images of weird rocks and beautiful wildflowers fill my phone, but only touching the cold, rough surfaces of stones or discovering a colorful blossom can bring a complete sense of being alive.
Life is designed to be a fully immersive, sensory experience. Hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching combine to make life seem “real.” Of these, touching is likely the most essential. The absence of the other four senses can limit life, but the absence of touching is dangerous or even fatal. Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), a rare condition where just one of the touch capabilities is absent, is known to cause serious injuries, undetected infections, and a shortened life expectancy. Babies who aren’t touched fail to thrive, have slow growth and development, and can even die.
I can describe the forest to you but only immersing yourself in it brings maximum benefit. The message of Mystery Acres is to live using all your senses. Being fully alive requires tangible interaction with the world. A digital world doesn’t feel “real,” only what is tangible can make life real. My forest calls to you – go touch a tree, caress a rock, or feel the air moving through your hair.
Ancient Mystery’s Voice
“Jesus said, ‘Touch Me and know.’” (see Luke 24:39)
There are four books of the Bible where the words and actions of Jesus are recorded. Captured in those books are numerous times when Jesus touched someone as part of healing or helping them. His touch restored sight and hearing, cured illness, and ended disability. There is one incident where He invited someone to touch Him.
Reported to have come back to life, Jesus appeared to some of His disciples during a meal. They were frightened and confused, unable to believe Jesus was alive again and physically with them. Perhaps He was a ghost? Maybe they were seeing something that wasn’t really there? Was he a hologram? But they wouldn’t have known what that was either.
To make Himself “real” to them, Jesus said, “touch Me and know.” Most translations use the phrase “touch Me and see,” but the original Greek word used isn’t about sight, it’s about understanding and knowing. We might say “I see what you’re saying,” but we aren’t referring to our sense of sight, we are saying we understand or know. Similarly, Jesus invited the disciples to touch His very real body so they could know He was really there. Stated another way, Jesus said something like “touch Me so you know I am real.” Jesus offered Himself in a tangible way.
Then, within a few weeks, He left. He was tangible for a period of 40 days between the day He came back from the dead (i.e., resurrection) and the day He returned to heaven (i.e., ascension). At His departure, He told the disciples to go and make other disciples. They were to be the tangible presence of Jesus to others. Jesus was real to those first disciples and they, in turn, were to make Jesus real to more people.
There’s a song I love by Audio Adrenaline about making Jesus tangible to others. “Hands and Feet” is about being sent as the tangible manifestation of Jesus in the lives of those in need. The lyrics include phrases to “touch the world” as the hands and feet of Jesus. The reason to touch the world is because of being touched by Jesus. The touch of Jesus compels believers to be His tangible touch to others, thereby making Him real.
Ancient Mystery’s Voice calls us to “touch and know” the reality of Jesus. Spiritual truth becomes tangible when Jesus is made real through His touch. That touch started with the first disciples, and it has continued through the generations and around the globe to now. Tangible actions, hands and feet serving others, make Jesus real.
Living in Mystery
What does it mean to live in the mystery of the tangible, making life more real? It starts with assessing how much of your life has become intangible, sacrificed to the flat surface of a device. How much of the richness of each day is lost because you are living through a touchscreen? Scrolling through your newsfeed might be a sign of a deeper hunger, your fingertips needing to feel something real, something tangible.
Ponder what compels you to pick up a device and start scrolling. When you find yourself living through a touchscreen, stop for a moment and just notice how you feel, consider what you might be needing or wanting. The steady stream of digital images is flowing through an empty place in you. What might better fill that void?
Here’s the scary part: you may not know what hunger the device is temporarily satisfying. It’s so easy to stay in the habit of just living through a screen; putting it down and searching for what is better can be uncomfortable. Do it anyway. Stop scrolling and consider your options for what is more tangible. Go outside. Stroke a pet. Talk to someone (texting doesn’t count). Grab a journal and write down your thoughts the old-fashioned way with pen and paper. Empty and organize your junk drawer. Take in the real world through your skin, the most amazing sensory system your body has.
Life is meant to be tangible, not digital. Touch the world, not a touchscreen, and experience what is real. Interact with people in person whenever possible. Snuggle with the children in your world. Reach out and touch the arm or back of someone to let them know you care. Be tangible with each other. Use your fingertips to know the world and to help others know you. Seek the tangible and make life more “real.”
Connecting with Mystery
Dear Lord of All Mystery, thank You for reminding me of the incredible sensory system of my skin. Forgive me for allowing so much of my life to disappear into a touchscreen instead of using my sense of touch to know the world and people around me. Help me to focus less on the digital and more on the tangible. Thank You for equipping me to help others touch and know You through me. Amen.
Notes from Dr. Mac
If you want to do your own investigation of any of the scriptures I use, you could go to Bible Gateway. In the spirit of today’s meditation, I recommend you grab a physical Bible as you ponder Jesus’ words in Luke 24:39, “Touch Me and know.”
Do you want more from my writing? I have over three years of previous posts, which you can find at my ARCHIVE.
My very first post, from May 8, 2022, is Turn the Page. I have topically organized some of my previous work in the My Books section. Plus Mystery’s Voice is on Spotify.
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