Filling the empty space

As I sit in my desk chair and look across the room, there is nothing between me and the bookshelf (and the cluttered ping pong table) I am looking at.

Or is there?

It's interesting to ponder what really is in the "space" around us. Of course, we know the space is filled with air; the earth's atmosphere is pervasive, and though we can't see the air, we are grateful that it surrounds us. We feel its effect more directly when the wind blows.

Light fills my room. The light coming from a light bulb reflects off the objects and to my eyes, where it enables me to perceive the things around me, to see their size, texture, color, shape, position, etc.

Music is playing in a nearby speaker, and so sound waves bounce around that empty space and into my ears.

Odors somehow travel through the space and arrive in my nose - tiny molecules of food - and I can smell what is cooking in the kitchen upstairs.

But that's just the start! What else is in that empty space, not visible to me?

• my WiFi router is sending and receiving all kinds of information to my phone, my computer, and various devices in the house
• signals from a few dozen radio stations are here, that I could convert into music and talk with a radio receiver
• television signals (this is old school!) from a number of local stations that can still be received with an antenna and decoded into full-motion video with audio
• incredible amounts of cell phone conversations, encoded and packetized and flying around all around us
• magnetic forces including the earth's gravitational field
• GPS signals being transmitted from satellites in the sky high above us, that allow our phones to calculate a precise location
• some things may or may not be in my room just now, but they can fill "empty" space around us: radiation, radar, sonar, RF EMF, microwave data transmission, etc. etc.

Given all those "invisible" things that fill my room, I wonder what other kinds of things are around that mankind has not yet discovered or comprehended! Perhaps in coming years we will add many additional significant things to the list.

In a religious sense, Joseph Smith once learned about light that "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space" and not only illuminates our vision but also gives life and governs all things (D&C 88:5-13). The "immensity of space" isn't really empty at all!

I #GiveThanks for many invisible gifts that enable life and enrich it in so many ways.