Lunch: Wonderful Maker

by Hillary Mortensen

For 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.
Psalm 139:13-14

Ponder these facts about the human body, as compiled by Listverse:

1. The stomach’s digestive acids are strong enough to dissolve zinc. Fortunately for us, the cells in the stomach lining renew so quickly that the acids don’t have time to dissolve it.

2. The lungs contain over 300,000 million capillaries (tiny blood vessels). If they were laid end to end, they would stretch 2400km (1500 miles).

3. A man’s testicles manufacture 10 million new sperm cells each day – enough that he could repopulate the entire planet in only 6 months!

4. Human bone is as strong as granite in supporting weight. A block of bone the size of a matchbox can support 9 tonnes – that is four times as much as concrete can support.

5. Each finger and toenail takes six months to grow from base to tip.

6. The largest organ in the body is the skin. In an adult man it covers about 1.9m2 (20sq ft). The skin constantly flakes away – in a lifetime each person sheds around 18kg (40 lb) of skin.

7. When you sleep, you grow by about 8mm (0.3in). The next day you shrink back to your former height. The reason is that your cartilage discs are squeezed like sponges by the force of gravity when you stand or sit.

8. The average person in the west eats 50 tonnes of food and drinks 50,000 litres (11,000 gallons) of liquid during his life.

9. Each kidney contains 1 million individual filters. They filter an average of around 1.3 litres (2.2 pints) of blood per minute and expel up to 1.4 litres (2.5 pints) a day of urine.

10. The focusing muscles of the eyes move around 100,000 times a day. To give your leg muscles the same workout, you would need to walk 80km (50 miles) every day.

11. In 30 minutes, the average body gives off enough heat (combined) to bring a half gallon of water to boil.

12. A single human blood cell takes only 60 seconds to make a complete circuit of the body.

13. A foreskin, the size of a postage stamp, from circumcised babies take only 21 days to grow skin that can cover three (3) basketball courts. Amazing isn’t it. Thanks to science. The laboratory-grown skin is used in treating burn patients.

14. The eyes receive approximately 90 percent of all our information, making us basically visual creatures.

15. The female ovaries contain nearly half-a-million egg cells, yet only 400 or so will ever get the opportunity to create a new life.

Furthermore, as professor of exercise physiology Dr. Phillip Bishop points out, "If you're in average physical condition, [your heart] beats between 60 and 70 times per minute, 93,000 times per day, 655,000 times per week, 34 million times per year, and 2.4 billion beats in the average lifetime. What's so amazing is that, most of the time, it fuels itself, paces itself, repairs itself, and alters itself in response to lifestyle changes, with no conscious effort on your part."

In short, our bodies are AMAZING...and yes, that even includes those of you who suffer from illness, chronic pain, or real or perceived (you know who you are) old age. The complexity of the human body, therefore, points to an intelligent designer (the arguments for which are many and include those from modern times and those dating back many years).

God, our Creator, our Designer, made our bodies, each cell, each nerve, each muscle, each bone. And He, our Wonderful Maker, who formed Adam's inward parts and wove him together while he was still in the womb, knows exactly what is needed to "piece back together" Adam's body, in order that he would be healed. We may not know, even the doctors may not know, but God knows. Right now, praise God for His beauty and complexity, as demonstrated by the human body. Thank God for forming us carefully and for knowing how to restore Adam's body and being powerful enough to do so. Ask God to fight off infection in Adam's body, to allow his body to rest, for the neurological storms to diminish, and for his brain to return to full functioning.

Marvel:



Note: For those of you who are interested in exploring arguments that point toward an intelligent designer, I encourage you to check out these resources:
Evidence of God in Human Physiology
Using God's Design to Communicate Faith
Origins: A list of scholarly and popular articles concerning Intelligent Design
DNA, Design, and the Origin of Life
The Teleological Argument and the Anthropic Principle (highly intellectual)