From the Inside Out

“Ask the animals, and they will teach you,

or the birds of the air, and they will tell you;

or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,

or let the fish of the sea inform you.

Which of all these does not know that

the hand of the Lord has done this?”

–Job 12:7-9

It’s true. Just a bit of knowledge in the fields of zoology, botany, or geology does inform us of the precision with which our God created all things:

• Every living thing is provided just the right kind of nourishment it needs.
• The Amazon rain forest supplies the entire planet with half its oxygen.
• Rivers respond to God’s laws of physics, causing them to meander instead of run straight. As a result, calm estuaries form so young aquatic animals are protected while they grow.

Countless facts such as these make it difficult to disregard the evidence: A Supreme Being had to mastermind all this.

Even mathematical explorations lead us to the same conclusion.

Take for example Fibonacci* numbers—a sequence where each succeeding number is the sum of the two preceding numbers. 0+1=1; 1+1=2; 1+2=3, 2+3=5, and so on, produces this sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, etc.

So what’s the big deal? someone may ask. There are more than a few big deals.

First, the number of petals on a flower very often comes from the Fibonacci sequence. The calla lily has one petal; Euphorbia, two; trillium, three; violets, five; bloodroot, eight; and black-eyed Susan, thirteen. The list could continue.

Or, imagine each Fibonacci number as the sides of a square arranged like this:

Now add an arc from opposite corners in each square, to form a spiral. Someone designated it the Golden Spiral.

Look familiar?  You’ve seen it in the interior view of a nautilus shell,

the pattern of sunflower seeds,

the tail of a seahorse,

the rotation of a hurricane,

and the expansive reach of some galaxies.

Other spirals are also in evidence:

Imagine holding a stem of leaves. Look carefully at how each leaf is attached to the stem and you’ll see a spiral pattern. Now put your (imaginary) finger on one leaf and turn the stem to find another leaf in the same position on the stem. The number of turns will be a Fibonacci number.

Count the leaves in between those two leaves you’ve just identified, and again, the total will be a Fibonacci number. For example, the ratio of turns to leaves is 1:2 for elms, 1:3 for beech, 2:5 for oak.

Trees are not the only vegetation to display spirals in a consistent ratio of side-by-side Fibonacci numbers. The scales of pinecones grow in opposing spirals in a 5:8 ratio, the bumps on a pineapple are 8:13.

Even the DNA molecule measures 34 angstroms long by 21 angstroms wide for each full turn of its double helix spiral—again, neighboring numbers in the Fibonacci sequence.

Similar ratios are found on sunflowers. The number of seed-spirals going in one direction will add up to a Fibonacci number; those going in the other direction will be a neighboring Fibonacci number.

Evidence of these number sequences is so vast in creation, The Fibonacci Quarterly was established in 1963, published by The Fibonacci Association. Their purpose is to document the occurrence of the phenomenon in nature.

I wonder if they would agree with Galileo (1564-1642) who proclaimed:

“Mathematics is the language

in which God has written the universe.”

Just the Fibonacci sequence alone gives much proof.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

Glorious God, you are the Artist who fashioned mountains and sunsets of breath-taking beauty. You are the Scientist who designed flora and fauna to thrive and regenerate. You are the Mathematician who shaped the world with symmetry, organization, and pattern.   The whole earth is filled with your glory (Isaiah 6:3)—down to the last molecule! How can we express the overwhelming wonder that fills our hearts?        

* Leonard da Pisano, also known as Fibonacci (son of Bonaccio), discovered the sequence pattern around 1200 A.D.

(Art & photo credits:  http://www.pexels.com; http://www.pixhere.com; http://www.wikimedia.org (3); http://www.wikipedia.org; http://www.peakpx.com; http://www.flickr.com; http://www.wikipedia.org (2); http://www.wikimedia.org (2); http://www.pxhere.com.