More Than Meets the Eye Read online

  Genesis explains how we will one day return to the ground, “since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”6 Naturally, we thought this verse referred to the end of life. In reality the verse is true every moment of every day, even in our healthiest moments. “We are continually being recreated from dust and returning to dust,” explains David M. Baughan, M.D. “We are not objects or machines that endure, we are patterns that have the capacity to perpetuate ourselves. We are not things; instead we are processes.”7 Said Buckminster Fuller: “I seem to be a verb.”

  “Life is a wave, which in no two consecutive moments of its existence is composed of the same particles,” explains another physicist, John Tyndall.8 The fundamental particles that comprise us have been floating around since the beginning. They roost within us for a while, and then move on down the road to inhabit our neighbor. Some of the atoms that resided within our childhood frames are now probably doing their similar work within a body in Mongolia.

  “The body is more like a flame than a lump of clay, burning yet not consumed,” says author George Leonard. “The substance of which it is made changes. The essential form persists.”9 This might sound suspiciously New Age, but it is actually pretty good physics. Yes, our bodies are indeed discrete units. But we also leak, both physically and metaphysically. In consequence, we share our physical existence with our neighbors, however remote. Red and yellow, black and white—they are me and I am them. Through shared sneezes, sloughed skin, the jet stream, flowing rivers, and a myriad of other mixing devices, God brings us together constantly.

  The Subatomic Level

  Of course there are additional organizational units other than atoms. Each level is miraculous in its own right. From the smallest to the largest, we are constructed of:

  subatomic particles atomsmoleculescellstissuesorganssystems

  When we first discovered the subatomic particles of the proton, neutron, and electron, we thought we had identified the fundamental building blocks of all of nature—surely nothing could be smaller. But scientists sometimes have a way of being premature with their pronouncements, and since then we have identified over 200 subatomic particles smaller than the initial proton, neutron, and electron.

  One such subatomic particle is called the Xi. It has a life span of one ten-billionth of a second. In the amount of time it takes my heart to beat, this one subatomic particle has gone through billions of lifetimes. Why did God make a Xi? Perhaps He was just having fun, and thought “This will keep a few thousand scientists busy for a decade just trying to track this ghost.”

  After digging even deeper and uncovering still more particles, some physicists began to speculate that we are infinite—not only in the eternal direction—but also in the subatomic direction. Science devises new and sophisticated technology to penetrate ever smaller levels, only to find yet another little critter winking mischievously at our machines. Other scientists believe that beneath the tiny subatomic “quarks,” perhaps the newly postulated superstrings might represent the final bottom of the well. Personally, I believe we are indeed “infinite in all directions.”

  The Cellular Level

  Mix together these subatomic particles, add a bit of mysticism, and out pop some atoms. Take about twenty of the most common elemental atoms—especially carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, which account for 99 percent of the dry weight of every living thing—add a bit of mysticism, and out pop some pretty sophisticated molecules. 10 Organize molecules in just the right way, add a bit of mysticism, and—this is the really tricky part—out pop some living cells.

  Not only are the subatomic particles flashing in and out of existence faster than a New York cabby changes lanes; not only are the atoms turning over at a rate exceeding a billion trillion per second; and not only are the molecules continuously rearranging themselves in a dance we might call the nanosecond shuffle … but, you guessed it, the cells are doing the same thing. It is almost as if God, working at the speed of light, is continuously tinkering with His invention. When Paul wrote: “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day,”11 apparently he was correct on both the spiritual and the physical levels.

  The body contains between 10 and 100 trillion cells (and each cell contains approximately a trillion atoms). These cells, like just about everything else in the body, are continually being torn down, remodeled, and replaced. Think of it like this: If your body were a house, and the house were the size of Texas, imagine knocking down the walls in a million rooms every second and hastily rebuilding them again with new materials.

  Every couple of days we replace all the cells that line the intestine—faster if we eat Mexican food. Every couple of weeks we replace all the cells of the skin—where did you think all that house dust comes from? Every seven years we replace the entire skeleton.

  Different cell types have differing life spans. Many cells last less than a day. Platelets live only a couple of days. Red blood cells live four months. Certain muscle cells can live for years. And nerve cells can live a hundred years. But all cells eventually die. Some die from injury, some from disease, but most die from a form of suicide called programmed cell death.

  The mystery of cell function is both stunning and inspiring:

  Each cell is unimaginably complex. Each must live in community with its surrounding neighbors, doing its own specialized part in the whole.

  Each cell is surrounded by a membrane thinner than a spider’s web that must function precisely or the cell will die.

  Each cell generates its own electric field, which at times is larger than the electric field near a high-voltage power line.12

  Each cell contains specialized energy factories called biofires that use adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Every cell contains hundreds of these miniature ATP motors embedded in the surfaces of the mitochondria. Each motor is 200 thousand times smaller than a pinhead. At the center of ATP synthase is a tiny wheel that turns at about a hundred revolutions per second and produces three ATP molecules per rotation.13

  Cells don’t stockpile ATP but instead make it as needed from food consumed. Active people can produce their body weight in ATP every day.14

  Each cell has its own internal clock, switching on and off in cycles from two to twenty-six hours, never varying.15

  If after glimpsing the activity, intricacy, balance, and precision of life at this level you do not suspect a God standing behind it all, then my best diagnostic guess is that you are in a metaphysical coma.

  If God put this all together, He must be very clever. And powerful. And precise. Does He know the position of all of these subatomic particles, all the time—even when they come in and out of existence in less than a trillionth of a second? Yes, He does. Not only does He know where they are at all times, but He nicknames them in His spare time.

  The point is: such a God can be trusted with the details of my life. After rearranging subatomic particles all morning, the specifics of my life probably seem a bit unchallenging to Him.

  The HEART, BLOOD,

  and LUNGS

  POWERING the circulatory system is a formidable task, un-forgiving of errors. But the heart is remarkably effective. Every day, uncomplaining, this ten-ounce muscle contracts 100 thousand times nary “missing a beat.” Over a lifetime of faithful service, these two self-lubricating, self-regulating, high-capacity pumps beat two and one-half billion times and pump sixty million gallons of blood without pausing to rest. (Technically this is not correct, for the pumping action actually takes place in less than one-third of the cardiac cycle.1 Even though the heart spends two-thirds of its life resting, the word “lazy” doesn’t apply. It takes a rest, but it never takes a vacation.)

  A mere three weeks after conception, a sheet of electrically excitable cells organize themselves into an immature heart and begin beating (the first rock band?). At fourteen weeks this heart is already pumping seven gallons per day—compared to two thousand gallons a day for th
e adult. Solomon wrote that God has “set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”2 I suspect God set that eternity in the heart while still in the womb, but as predicted we did not “fathom what God has done.”

  This circulatory effort is so dynamic that each blood cell returns back to its cardiac starting place every minute. The 120-day life span of a red blood cell isn’t all that glamorous—it runs around in a circle 200,000 times only to be squished by the spleen on its 200,001st trip. Bummer. Not that the little critter should “worry” about it all, for researchers have discovered that worry is bad for the heart.3 It turns out that when God said, “do not fret,”4 “do not worry about tomorrow,”5 and “do not be anxious,”6 He was acting in His capacity as the world’s premier cardio-psychiatrist.

  Even though the four-chambered heart is remarkably effective, as with all engines it is not mechanically very efficient (typically less than 10 percent efficiency rating).7 Personally, I have no complaints. Any lack of efficiency is more than made up for by a commensurate faithfulness. I stand in awe.

  Blood Vessels

  The body has sixty thousand miles of blood vessels, a distance nearly two and one-half times around the earth at the equator. This extensive system of branching vessels begins with the large aorta. Blood surges through the aortic valve and out of the left ventricle at high speed and under significant pressure. The high pressures in the arteries then appropriately decrease over the course of flow so important exchanges of oxygen, nutrition, and waste can take place. Once the blood reaches its capillary destination, the express train must slow to a local commuter pace, allowing these passengers to get off and on.

  The capillaries are so small their average diameter is the same size as a red blood cell (RBC). This means that RBCs often must flow through in single file and sometimes even distort themselves to fit. The capillary wall contains pores that permit the exchange of various molecules, such as water, glucose, electrolytes, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and small proteins. The RBCs themselves can’t escape through the capillary wall unless the wall membrane is injured. In that case, however, RBCs spill into the tissues “bruising” them. The wall of the capillary is so delicate it would rupture under a tension one three-thousandth of that required to tear toilet tissue.8

  If we cut through a cross section of active muscle and put it under a microscope, we would find 190 capillaries in every square millimeter. (A square millimeter is slightly more than one-thousandth of a square inch.) The entire body has about seventy thousand square feet of capillary wall, a figure so large it even dwarfs Bill Gates’s fifty thousand square foot house. This large surface area grants the body the abundant room necessary for the exchange of nutrition, oxygen, and waste.

  Red Blood Cells

  Red blood cells, also known as erythrocytes, are of critical importance to life. “The life is in the blood” is not only good theology but also good biology.9 The story begins with the critical nature of oxygen. All fires require oxygen, including the energy-releasing fire within our cells. Our problem is that the oxygen is “out there” and not “in here.”

  In response, God devised a series of ingenious mechanisms to transport oxygen into the tissues. When oxygen is inhaled into the respiratory tract, it snuggles up against the thinner-than-paper lining of the lung wall. Immediately on the other side of this wall are capillaries. The favorable diffusion coefficient attracts the oxygen molecule across the lining and into the capillary blood stream. This diffusion is so successful, however, that the blood stream now has a new problem—a numbers problem. The oxygen molecules, like teenagers offered free pizza, are showing up in the trillions. Since oxygen is not very soluble in blood, they can’t all fit into the blood stream and transfer down to the peripheral tissues by simply swimming on their own. An efficient transport system is obviously necessary. God, thinking ahead, ordered up a limo. Actually, an entire fleet. Enter the RBC.

  If the body had to depend on the oxygen that was dissolved in the blood stream, the heart would have to pump twenty-five times as much to accomplish oxygenation of the tissues. God must have thought that represented a lot of unnecessary work, so He invented the RBC. And within each RBC He placed hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is an interesting and complex iron-rich molecule. It has been calculated that the chance that amino acids would line up randomly to create the first hemoglobin protein is 1 in 10850.10 Not good odds if you were to stake your bet on randomness over design.

  The oxygen molecules pile into the RBC limousine by combining with the hemoglobin. Because of the hemoglobin molecule’s tremendous affinity for oxygen, each RBC can carry a million molecules of oxygen. Once full, the limo heads down the road in search of hypoxic oxygen-starved cells. Arriving in the capillaries, the RBCs slow to single file. The generous hemoglobin molecules, seeing poor gasping cells on the other side of the capillary wall, release their oxygen. Then, lonely and depressed, the RBC and its desaturated hemoglobin head back to the lungs in search of an oxygen refill.

  It is interesting to note that the body believes in leaving a margin. Under normal resting conditions, the RBC releases only about 25 percent of its oxygen to the tissues. This leaves abundant margin for surging to 100 percent—and even beyond—should the need arise during strenuous work and exercise.11

  Red blood cells are tiny but plentiful. We each make over two million RBCs every second. If we looked at them under a microscope they would look like tiny red donuts. If we took them all out of our body and laid them side by side they would go around the earth at the equator four times.

  I wonder if God paused when deciding to create red blood cells … realizing that His Son would die by shedding them. How much blood did Christ actually shed? We have no way of knowing for sure. But without a doubt, He shed at least one red blood cell for every human who ever lived.12 Mathematically He would have accomplished that in His first few drops. And a drop—even a single cell—of such divine blood is sufficient to pay the price of our ransom.

  The heart and the blood. There is something deep for us here. It is not a matter of biology but rather of eternity. “Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always,” God told Moses, “so that it might go well with them and their children forever!”13

  White Blood Cells, Platelets, and the Immune System

  The red blood cells are superstars—but they aren’t the real heroes. That award appropriately goes to the white blood cells and platelets. They die for us. They were born ready to die.

  Platelets are half the size of erythrocytes and survive only a matter of days. This is why we must continually produce five million new platelets every second. They are critical for the clotting of the blood, rushing to the site of injury and heroically throwing their tiny bodies into the hole.

  The white blood cells are no less self-sacrificing. They are a vital link in our quest for daily survival. Not to be paranoid about it but there are billions of microbes continuously seeking to do us harm. This is why the body must have ready fifty billion white blood cells standing guard. These are the active duty forces. But in the reserves, hiding in the bone marrow, we have a backup force one hundred times as large should the need arise.14

  These microbes are most often either bacteria or viruses. Bacteria—such as strep or staph—live only a matter of minutes but reproduce rapidly by the millions. They are the most prolific form of life on the planet “and if allowed to go unchecked for only thirty-six hours they would reproduce in numbers that could cover the entire planet ‘to the thickness of over a foot.’”15 They are all over us—on the skin, in the gastrointestinal tract, and in the respiratory tract. Many of them are beneficial, and, as a matter of fact, we would not be able to live without them. Others are noxious, while still others can be fatal.

  Viruses—such as the cold and flu viruses, measles, and HIV—are different. They are a hundred times smaller than bacteria, averaging one ten-millionth of an inch in diameter. Viruses show no lifelike a
ctivity until they occupy a living host cell. They cannot be treated with antibiotics.

  The skin and mucosa of the respiratory tract are the first line of defense against microbial attack. Yet should any infectious agents breach this outer defense, the immune system takes over. Here the white blood cell is an important player.

  The immune system is extremely complex. Its first responsibility is to identify whether the suspicious invader is friend or foe—that is, is it our own tissue or is it foreign material? Sometimes the immune system makes a tragic, and occasionally fatal, mistake in identification and launches an all-out offensive against the host tissue itself (called an autoimmune disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis).

  In most cases, however, the immune system plays its role properly. When a foreign agent is identified, a fleet of white blood cells, possessing as many as 100 billion molecular receptors, must perform a vast program of pattern recognition.16 Antibodies are formed, which then attach themselves to the enemy agents, marking them for destruction.

  Next time you get a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes, or inflammation, remember that your body is doing battle on your behalf. Don’t be irritated by the fever or discomfort. Instead, just think about the billions of white blood cells that are dying so that you may live.

  In some ways, our white blood cells are better Christians than we are. These cells have one mission, one purpose—to give their lives in defense of ours. “Greater love has no one than this,” Jesus explained, “that he lay down his life for his friends.”17 Jesus did it for us; our white blood cells and platelets do it for us. Why do we doubt His vigilance when He so faithfully performs it on the microscopic level every day of our lives? The evidence is overwhelming—He sees, He cares, and He defends.