From the Inside Out

Long ago, David wrote a prayer of praise, marveling at God’s omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience—Psalm 139. David celebrated that God is present everywhere at the same time, he is all-powerful, and he knows all.  It’s one of my favorite psalms.

In the middle of this prayer, David says, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (vs. 13-14).

Even back in 1000 B.C., David recognized that the human body is an amazing work of engineering and art. But centuries of scientific discoveries only increase our wonder as we begin to understand the intricacies of how the human body works.

One of the most amazing finds occurred in the middle of the twentieth century: the discovery of DNA, researched by Francis Crick, James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins.

(Maclyn McCarty with Francis Crick and James D. Watson.

Photo credit:  Wikipedia)

You may recall from biology class that all living cells contain a chromosome, a single molecule of DNA bonded to various proteins. These chromosomes contain the genes that determine inherited traits. In all eukaryotic cells (those that contain complex structures enclosed within membranes), the chromosomes are thread-like strands, located in the nucleus.

These thread-like strands form a spiraled ladder, called a double helix. One side goes up, the other goes down. “Base pairs” interlock in the middle, keeping the distance constant between the two helixes.

(If you remembered all that, you either studied biology recently or have an incredible memory! And if I have misread the research and reported the facts wrong, please set me straight in the Comments section.)

Scientists now know just how many bits of information are coded onto each chromosome: twenty billion! That amount of information would take three billion letters to record.

If the average word contains six letters, the information on one human chromosome equals about 500 million words.

If there are 300 words on a printed page, the information would require two million pages to record.

If these pages were bound into 500-page books, the resulting library would contain 4,000 books.

The human chromosome carries 4,000 large books of information!

Chromosome segregation during mitosis (Photo credit: TheJCB)

Part of that information is to instruct each cell about its job. There are more than 200 different cell-types in the human body. DNA instructs each one how to function—as bone, muscle, organ, brain, hair, fingernails, blood vessels, etc. DNA programs all 100 trillion of each body’s cells. And every hour one billion of those cells are being replaced.

Suddenly, David’s words, “We are fearfully and wonderfully made” take on fresh meaning. We shake our heads in amazement. And we’ve only considered one tiny miracle out of thousands that occur every day within our own bodies, much less everything else happening on our planet, in the galaxy, and in the universe.

Almighty God, our hearts fill with awe and praise as we consider your infinite genius, manifested in the wonders you have made. You are the all-wise Designer of everything, a perfect God whose work is perfect.

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power; for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11).

We proclaim your glory and honor and power!

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What wonder of God’s creation fills you with awe? Share with us a fact or two that has caused you to marvel.