Gratitude for one very tiny part of Creation

Dear Friends,

Wonder and gratitude, along with humor are among the best ways to honor God and give flight to the spirit. Lately I've been rereading Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything and I came across this passage, which made me wonder again at the amazing intricacy God has brought into being.

"Every cell in nature is a thing of wonder. Even the simplest are far beyond the limits of human ingenuity. To build the most basic yeast cell, for example, you would have to miniaturize about the same number of components as are found in a Boeing 777 jetliner and fit them into a sphere just five microns across; then somehow you would have to persuade that sphere to reproduce.

"But yeast cells are as nothing compared with human cells, which are not just more varied and complicated, but vastly more fascinating because of their complex interactions.

"Your cells are a country of ten thousand trillion citizens, each devoted in some intensively specific way to your overall well-being. There isn't a thing they don't do for you. They let you feel pleasure and form thoughts. They enable you to stand and stretch and caper. When you eat, they extract the nutrients, distribute the energy, and carry off the wastes ... but they also remember to make you hungry in the first place and reward you with a feeling of well-being afterward so that you won't forget to eat again. They keep your hair growing, your ears waxed, your brain quietly purring."

There is an old old saying that God inspired the creation of two bibles. One was written out by hand and later printed and comes to us as words on a page. The other is all around and within us and consists of creation itself.

This is not the most auspicious time, here in Minnesota, to appreciate the glories of nature. As I write we're about to have an ice storm. Yet even now, if we consider our own bodies with their remarkable capabilities or use our mysterious imaginative minds to transform little black squiggles into meaning we will find ample cause for wonder and praise.

I wish you a New Year filled with joy and wonder in all God's works.