“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Job 33:4.
The human body — all 30 trillion cells of it — is an amazing display of God’s creative power and wisdom, and the human brain is the outstanding feature that sets us above other creatures. Animals act out their interesting lives principally by God-given instincts. Only in a limited way can they learn tricks taught them by trainers and are never capable of passing these on to others of their kind. But man, “made in the image of God,” is easily able not only to learn and imitate, but to use his intellect to bring variety into his life, make changes in it, contribute to the welfare of others, and to consider the worth of all that comes to his attention.
This superiority is possible because of the remarkable capacity of the brain, with its complex parts and 200 million tiny nerve fibers that control every part of his body. It is the brain with its invisible mind that lets us enjoy quiet thoughts, a lovely melody or a beautiful scene. It allows us to invent and produce things of great variety, including today’s complicated computers, laser beams, etc. But most importantly our minds, by our inner spirits, are made to realize there is a life after this one, and that we need to prepare for it through faith in the Lord Jesus, according to the Bible message that God has given us.
Let’s consider another wonderful part of the body. Think of your eyes as two cameras, far superior to any ever made in a factory, that automatically focus for distance and motion and open or close just the right amount according to available light. The lenses of the eyes do this, adjusting to some 10,000 variations, depending on brightness or darkness surrounding the object being looked at. All the “pictures” taken by it are stored away in the brain for future reference. For instance, your thoughts may be on the first school you attended. Sure enough, a picture of it comes into your mind, clear as can be. Then when you turn to something else, the picture returns to its memory file until, perhaps many years later, you want to look at it again, and it will come forth just as fresh as ever!
If we weren’t limited in space, it would be interesting to explore the wonders of our hearts, lungs, ears, mouths, tongues, digestive systems and our all-important life-sustaining blood. (We have already had stories about some of these in earlier articles.)
As we think on these things we cannot help but share the Psalmist’s thoughts of God’s creation of man expressed in Psalms 139:14, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.”
ML-04/13/1986