GOD IN ALL PART 5: OUR BODY

Our Body

 

Made in God's image, formed from the dust
who are we that God would cherish us?
Woman from man, bone of his bone

our skeleton - skillfully grown.

Flesh of his flesh, God did create

with bones stronger than steel by weight.

Formed in the secret place,

 we live by God's great grace.

The human brain is unexplained,

unsolved mysteries still remain.

A super computer weapon:

a thousand trillion per second

of logical operations

shape action, thoughts and emotions

powered by God's life breath,

our minds living beyond death.

Guard the heart above all, says the Lord,

from which the source of life is stored.

Electrical impulses guide

our circulation deep inside.

The heart beats blood with precision -

six litres a minute rush in

through fifteen hundred miles blood flows

along a highway of vessels it goes.

A complex camera is the eye

trillions of calculations go by

every second sent to the brain

through the great optic nerve lane.

The pupil dilates and constricts

like an aperture lets in light

visuals of the retina transmit.

Depth perception, motion detection,

binocular vision -

Oh, the marvels of sight!

Outer ear finds sounds in the air

channeling them down the canal, where

vibrations from the eardrum flow

to three tiny bones in a row.

Amplification forward moves

watery waves through cochlea tubes.

Hair cells sway to frequencies rare,

heavenly tuning with divine care.

Mysteriously sounds transform

as electrical signals form,

which only the brain translates -

engineered hearing God creates.

No ear can hear, no mind conceives

how He weaves these intricacies,

or know what more God has in store,

what He has planned forever more.

Every textbook written on the subject of the human body can only begin to scratch the surface. No physician can explain the hows or the whys of  everything powered up and working in tandem. If we just stopped to take a look at our own bodies, how can we not believe in the One who created us? Scientists can't even begin to unravel the complexities of the brain. There are so many nerve cells in the brain, that it would take almost 3,000 years to count them! Our bodies can self repair and even self-regenerate through cellular and tissue repair. Each of our eleven organs can all work together seamlessly at the same time, breathing, digesting, thinking, moving, seeing and hearing. No man-made engineered systems can come near this level of integration and efficiency.  You and I are are living miracles! 

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made: your works are wonderful, I know that full well." 

Psalm 139:14

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

1 Corinthians 2:9

Interesting Facts:

The Brain:

• is composed of billions of nerve cells called neurons, which communicate with each other through electrical impulses and chemical signals.
• scientists have not been able to understand how the brain generates consciousness or how we are aware of ourselves and our surroundings.
• the brain has two hemispheres with the left being associated with language, logic and analytical thinking and the right associated with creativity, intuition and spatial awareness.
• the brain exhibits neuroplasticity - the ability to reorganize and adapt in response to experiences, learning and environmental changes which allows for lifelong learning and recovery from brain injuries. In other words, the brain can rewire itself.
• the amount of energy required to power the world's fastest supercomputer would be enough to power a building, whereas the human brain achieves the same processing speeds from the same energy needed to charge a dim light bulb.

Bones:

• an adult typically has 206 bones.
• pound for pound, bone is stronger than steel.
• bones contain bone marrow, a soft tissue where blood cells are produced.
• bones serve as a reservoir for calcium storage.
• bones have a remarkable ability to regenerate and heal after injury.
• the femur (thigh bone) is the longest and strongest bone. 

The Heart:

• is about the size of a fist (about 9-12 ounces).
• the heart beats about 60 - 100 times per minute at rest.
• the heart beat is regulated by electrical impulses.
• is composed of cardiac muscle, which is incredibly strong.
• each beat exerts enough pressure to pump blood throughout the entire body
• the heart pumps about 5-6 litres of blood per minute at rest and can increase up to 20 litres with physical activity.
• arteries transport oxygen rich blood away from the heart to tissues and organs, while veins return oxygen depleted blood to the heart.

The Eyes and Ears:

• the human eye can detect over ten million different colors.
• the image captured by our eyes are seen upside down, but the brain processes it to be right side up.
• we blink between 20,000 to 30,000 times per day.
• the eye's retina alone contains over 100 million photoreceptor cells, far more complex than any camera.
• the smallest bones are found in the inner ear: the stapes, incus and malleus.
• the stapes is 3-4 mm in length and weighs around 2-4 milligrams.
• the inner ear also helps us to keep our balance.
• tiny hair cells move in response to sound vibrations which convert into electrical signals which the brain can interpret.
• we have about 3,500 inner hair cells and around 12,000 outer hair cells.

Extreme closeup of iris & pupil

Electron microscope image of hair bundle from cell
in the inner ear. Harvard Medical School.

I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship." Quote from Francis Collins. (Geneticist and head of the National Institute of Health in the States.)