Thursday, September 5, 2019

DNA Dance

Friday, September 6, 2019

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!   

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!  Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

The intricacies and possibilities of science are immeasurable.  But, no matter how deeply immersed learned scientists go in the study of humanity’s being (that which makes us tick), we are no more than a centimeter’s progress in a journey of light years.  So complex and awesome is the construction of the essence of life; it is as David penned in this Psalm, unfathomable, too great for me to understand!  And the thoughts God implanted in this labyrinth of connection between bone, sinew, brain, and wonderful mystery are as incalculable as the number of grains of sand.  As the Psalmist also wrote, we are fearfully and wonderfully made!
But, for all the wonders of creation’s design and beauty, there is one element that stands head and shoulders above; all science and knowledge must bow before the love which brought it into being.  The Creator desired to be at one with His creation.
John Wesley declared, “For, what is religion, — I mean scriptural religion?  For all other is the vainest of all dreams.  What is the very root of this religion?  It is Immanuel, God with us!  God in man!  Heaven connected with earth!  The unspeakable union of mortal with immortal.[2]
In our attempts to get a grip on our beginnings by knowing the rudiments of our DNA, if the mere scientific calculations do not boggle the mind, how much farther are we away from comprehending the heart and purposes of God, Who designed and made us, and chose to be part of us?
Advent is the evidence of this, and as Wesley put it, Heaven in this way connected with earth…an unspeakable union of mortal with immortal, indeed!  The apostle Paul expressed this as Christ in us, the hope of glory![3] 
I can add a column of figures in my head, but DNA and most scientific pursuits are beyond my realm and fall in the category of interesting.  What really makes my head hurt is trying to figure out the why of God’s love.  Pastor and hymn-writer Isaac Watts probably shared my wonder over our Creator’s condescension:  
Alas! and did my Savior bleed And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?
Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!  And love beyond degree![4]
For You Today
When you go to worship this weekend, carry thoughts of how much thought God put into putting you together.  And then worship with all the wonder of the DNA that’s in you!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

 
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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Pixabay.com     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©
[2] From John Wesley Sermon “Human Life a Dream” (see Wesleyan Covenant Association, Keith Boyette, 12-21-18)
[3] See Colossians 1:27
[4] Alas!  And Did My Savior Bleed – Hymn written by Isaac Watts 1707 (public domain)

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