English Radio Program

26 September 2008

MAN IS WONDROUSLY MADE

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

Nearly 3,000 years ago the psalmist, David, wrote, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well" (Psalm 139:14). But just how wonderfully made man really is has come to light only in the past century as science has begun to unlock the secrets of the human body. The human body, according to medical science, contains 30 trillion cells that reproduce themselves every seven years. Each one of the 30 trillion cells performs 10,000 different chemical functions, according to Dr. Ralph Byron, renowned for his work at the City of Hope Cancer Clinic , yet all of them just work together to produce a healthy body.

When you get tired, you cannot say, "All right, cell number 26,433,293,000, get to work. You are not pulling your share of the load." All of these cells are linked together by 2 billion nerve cells tied into a brain containing 14 billion cells (give or take a few). I hesitate to say that these 2 billion nerve cells are tied into a computer-like device called the human brain, since the human brain is far superior to any computer ever created.

A few years ago I stated that for scientists to create a computer that would duplicate the function of the human brain, you would have to have a mechanism the size of a football field, five stories high, and to cool it would require the amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls; but today miniaturization has enabled scientists to shrink the size of their computer to a mechanism weighing about 3 pounds--2.2 kilograms--yet the computer that the scientist produces is still the product of his own brain and is only as good as the information fed into it.

The marvelous human body is powered by a digestive system that contains acids strong enough to eat the varnish off a table, yet function adequately in the stomach and intestine. Apply those same acids to the backside of your hand and they would immediately burn it. But within the human body the acids break down the foods you eat into fuel that is carried to your body through the bloodstream.

The blood is impelled by a powerful muscle, about the size of a man's fist, known as a heart--a complex device that beats more than 2.5 million times in an average life span. One of our Guidelines' board members, an attorney by profession, broke his arm, the result of taking a fall while walking the dog. Wes was still adjusting to the new handicap of trying to eat with his arm in a cast. As we had breakfast together, I noticed with amusement he reached for his mouth with his napkin only to discover that he was closer to his ear. What a way to learn to appreciate the dexterity of your hand, which performs some 58 different movements. And all of this we take for granted.

One more thing: Don't forget the marvel of the human eye, that remarkable little lens that lets you see the flowers, trees, and sunshine as it filters through the clouds. In spite of the fact that some of us find it necessary to wear glasses to correct a stigmatism, our eyes continue to let us perceive the world with a third dimension that lets us walk through the forest without hitting the trees.

"Just happened," some say, speaking of the marvelous human body. It just happened about the way an explosion in a print shop would produce an unabridged dictionary of the English language. Why don't you, like David of old, pause, fill your lungs with clean air, and lift your head toward heaven, saying, "Thank you, Lord, for my health and for my body. Thank you, Father, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14).

Resource reading: Philippians 4:10-23.