EYES IN THE BACK OF THEIR BACKS
Proverbs 15:3
“The eyes of the LORD [are] in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
While science has yet to find a human mother with eyes in the back of her head, it turns out that there is a species of shrimp that comes pretty close ... with extra eyes on its back.
The shrimp goes only by its Latin name – exoculata for short. It lives beneath two miles of water in the mid-Atlantic Ridge, near geological formations called black smokers. Black smokers continuously shoot out thick black clouds of water at a temperature of 660 degrees F. No trace of sunlight ever penetrates to such depths. So why do these shrimp need eyes at all? Scientists learned that the super-heated water coming out of black smokers is so hot that it actually glows. The glow isn’t all that bright, which is why exoculata needs such large eyes that they will fit only on the shrimp’s back. And what do the shrimp see? They make their living within inches of the hot stream of water. If they get too close to the super-heated water they could become instant shrimp cocktail!
Nothing escapes the Creator’s notice – not these shrimp nor a life that is in trouble due to difficulty or sin. But we need to remember both His genius in solving problems and that His mind toward us is one of love because of the sacrifice of His Son for us.
Heavenly Father, there is no problem that is too hard for You. Because I trust in Your forgiving love to me through Jesus Christ, I give all my problems and needs to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Richard Monastersky. “Deep-Sea Shrimp.” Science News, vol. 135. Feb. 11, 1989, pp. 90-93. Photo: Top of a 40-foot black smoker vent chimney at Loki's Castle, part of the northernmost hydrothermal vent field yet seen and sampled.
Proverbs 15:3
“The eyes of the LORD [are] in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
While science has yet to find a human mother with eyes in the back of her head, it turns out that there is a species of shrimp that comes pretty close ... with extra eyes on its back.
The shrimp goes only by its Latin name – exoculata for short. It lives beneath two miles of water in the mid-Atlantic Ridge, near geological formations called black smokers. Black smokers continuously shoot out thick black clouds of water at a temperature of 660 degrees F. No trace of sunlight ever penetrates to such depths. So why do these shrimp need eyes at all? Scientists learned that the super-heated water coming out of black smokers is so hot that it actually glows. The glow isn’t all that bright, which is why exoculata needs such large eyes that they will fit only on the shrimp’s back. And what do the shrimp see? They make their living within inches of the hot stream of water. If they get too close to the super-heated water they could become instant shrimp cocktail!
Nothing escapes the Creator’s notice – not these shrimp nor a life that is in trouble due to difficulty or sin. But we need to remember both His genius in solving problems and that His mind toward us is one of love because of the sacrifice of His Son for us.
Heavenly Father, there is no problem that is too hard for You. Because I trust in Your forgiving love to me through Jesus Christ, I give all my problems and needs to You. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Richard Monastersky. “Deep-Sea Shrimp.” Science News, vol. 135. Feb. 11, 1989, pp. 90-93. Photo: Top of a 40-foot black smoker vent chimney at Loki's Castle, part of the northernmost hydrothermal vent field yet seen and sampled.
YOUR BODY’S SELF-REPAIR
James 5:16
“Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Let’s take a moment today to look at your body’s incredible system for repairing itself. Suppose you accidentally cut your finger. Almost instantly, a series of precisely ordered steps begins to repair your finger.
First the bleeding must be stopped. While the scab is forming over the surface of the wound, the blood below is making another kind of clot out of blood platelets and protein. With the bleeding stopped, your body increases the flow of blood enriched with white blood cells. These not only search out and kill germs, but they clean the wound of damaged cellular tissue. Skin cells begin to increase the rate at which they make new cells in order to bridge the cut with new skin. Underneath, cells called fibroblasts fill the wound to strengthen the tender new tissue, and contract to pull the wound closed. Now blood vessels and nerves complete their repairs as the fibroblasts position themselves along the lines of stress to prevent future damage.
The intelligence in the order in which the steps to healing take place, as well as the advanced biochemistry involved in making those steps happen, makes the healing of a cut finger no less of a miracle than Jesus’ healing of the high priest’s servant’s ear. Healing is clearly His doing, whether it happens slowly or instantly!
Dear Father, I confess that I am often too busy to notice how evident Your working is around me. Open my eyes to Your activity and increase my faith. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
“How a Wound Mends.” Science Digest, May 1983, p. 86. Photo: Hand abrasion 32 minutes after injury.
James 5:16
“Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
Let’s take a moment today to look at your body’s incredible system for repairing itself. Suppose you accidentally cut your finger. Almost instantly, a series of precisely ordered steps begins to repair your finger.
First the bleeding must be stopped. While the scab is forming over the surface of the wound, the blood below is making another kind of clot out of blood platelets and protein. With the bleeding stopped, your body increases the flow of blood enriched with white blood cells. These not only search out and kill germs, but they clean the wound of damaged cellular tissue. Skin cells begin to increase the rate at which they make new cells in order to bridge the cut with new skin. Underneath, cells called fibroblasts fill the wound to strengthen the tender new tissue, and contract to pull the wound closed. Now blood vessels and nerves complete their repairs as the fibroblasts position themselves along the lines of stress to prevent future damage.
The intelligence in the order in which the steps to healing take place, as well as the advanced biochemistry involved in making those steps happen, makes the healing of a cut finger no less of a miracle than Jesus’ healing of the high priest’s servant’s ear. Healing is clearly His doing, whether it happens slowly or instantly!
Dear Father, I confess that I am often too busy to notice how evident Your working is around me. Open my eyes to Your activity and increase my faith. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
“How a Wound Mends.” Science Digest, May 1983, p. 86. Photo: Hand abrasion 32 minutes after injury.
MECHANICAL EXCELLENCE UNDER STRESS
Psalm 148:7-8
“Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word...”
God created this world, but He did not then stand back and let it and all life on it spin off into space. No, He supervises this world, and He is concerned with every day-to-day detail.
Most living things move or change shape in response to high-speed wind or water movement. Take leaves, for example. As the wind increases, leaves automatically change shape with respect to the wind direction so that they offer less wind resistance. Holly leaves fold up and over each other along the branch, cutting the area exposed to the wind by over 50 percent. The same is true of an entire tree. As the old saying goes, the tree that bends with the wind is less likely to break.
Even people, when faced with a strong wind, walk and move differently than in a light breeze. Recent scientific studies on the amount of drag which living things have has shown that living things generally offer less than half as much drag as non-streamlined objects like buildings. In fact, living things have 30 percent less drag than modern streamlined automobiles.
God has not missed any details in His design of the creation. Modern technology has yet to come up with better designs, even in this simple area of engineering. Nothing has been left to chance!
Heavenly Father, I am thankful that there is no such thing as chance. Help me to remember that You remain as involved in the creation as ever. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Photo: European holly. Courtesy of Jürgen Howaldt. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.
THE SOLAR-POWERED PUMP
Psalm 104:16
“The trees of the LORD are full [of sap]; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted...”
When you look at a tall tree with good green leaves on the topmost branches and it hasn’t rained in a week, did you ever wonder how those leaves get their water in order to stay green?
On a nice, warm summer day, a large tree may pump over a thousand gallons – that’s four tons – of water from the ground up to its leaves. The water is collected by the roots, a drop at a time. But the real work of pumping tons of water 30, 60 or 100 feet into the air comes from the top of the tree. As water is pulled toward the treetop, it passes through vessels that have negative pressure in them, pulling the water up. Negative pressure in these vessels, high in a tree, has been measured as low as negative 20 atmospheres. This very low pressure is created as water evaporates from the leaves of the tree, creating a vacant space in the vessel that must be filled with more water from below. The pump in every tree can pull water up from more than 32 feet, which is the limit for man-made pumps.
The engineering excellence and power of the silent pump that delivers water within the tree is a witness for our Creator God and against chance evolution!
Dear Father in heaven, surely even the unnoticed things of the creation bear witness to You. Help me to be a witness of Your forgiveness for us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
Photo: Sunlight shining through redwoods in Muir Woods. Redwoods grow as tall as 379 feet and up to 26 feet in diameter at chest height.
NEW RECIPE FOR PRIMORDIAL SOUP
Acts 17:25
“Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things...”
One of the most difficult problems for those who believe in evolution is to explain the origin of life without reference to God.
Science is now aware that even the elementary living cell is, in reality, extremely complex, and it has become increasingly difficult to explain this without a Creator God. The most popular explanation says that the early Earth had an atmosphere of ammonia, methane, hydrogen and water. Oxygen had to be absent because it pretty much ruins the chemical reactions that are needed to form even simple biological molecules. It was also important that this early Earth be protected from ultraviolet radiation, which also ruins the chemistry.
But this picture of the early Earth has been shown to be totally inaccurate. For one thing, geologists can see from the oldest rocks that the Earth has always had plenty of oxygen in its atmosphere. Then astronomers have pointed out that a younger sun would be turning out l0,000 times more ultraviolet radiation than it does now.
Modern science is finding out that what the Bible says is true. Scientists just won’t admit it. The Earth has always had oxygen, since life needing oxygen has been around from the first week that the Earth existed. And life can only be explained as the work of the Source and Author of life, our Creator God.
Dear Father, I thank You that as the worldly wise are confused by their own false wisdom, You have made the Wisdom of the Ages in Jesus Christ available to the simple through the Bible. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Patrick Huyghe. “New Recipe for Cosmic Soup.” Science Digest, May 1983, pp. 42-44. Photo: Alexander Oparin, the Soviet biochemist who in 1924 put forward a theory of life on Earth developing through gradual chemical evolution of carbon-based molecules in primordial soup.
Psalm 148:7-8
“Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word...”
God created this world, but He did not then stand back and let it and all life on it spin off into space. No, He supervises this world, and He is concerned with every day-to-day detail.
Most living things move or change shape in response to high-speed wind or water movement. Take leaves, for example. As the wind increases, leaves automatically change shape with respect to the wind direction so that they offer less wind resistance. Holly leaves fold up and over each other along the branch, cutting the area exposed to the wind by over 50 percent. The same is true of an entire tree. As the old saying goes, the tree that bends with the wind is less likely to break.
Even people, when faced with a strong wind, walk and move differently than in a light breeze. Recent scientific studies on the amount of drag which living things have has shown that living things generally offer less than half as much drag as non-streamlined objects like buildings. In fact, living things have 30 percent less drag than modern streamlined automobiles.
God has not missed any details in His design of the creation. Modern technology has yet to come up with better designs, even in this simple area of engineering. Nothing has been left to chance!
Heavenly Father, I am thankful that there is no such thing as chance. Help me to remember that You remain as involved in the creation as ever. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Photo: European holly. Courtesy of Jürgen Howaldt. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Germany license.
THE SOLAR-POWERED PUMP
Psalm 104:16
“The trees of the LORD are full [of sap]; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted...”
When you look at a tall tree with good green leaves on the topmost branches and it hasn’t rained in a week, did you ever wonder how those leaves get their water in order to stay green?
On a nice, warm summer day, a large tree may pump over a thousand gallons – that’s four tons – of water from the ground up to its leaves. The water is collected by the roots, a drop at a time. But the real work of pumping tons of water 30, 60 or 100 feet into the air comes from the top of the tree. As water is pulled toward the treetop, it passes through vessels that have negative pressure in them, pulling the water up. Negative pressure in these vessels, high in a tree, has been measured as low as negative 20 atmospheres. This very low pressure is created as water evaporates from the leaves of the tree, creating a vacant space in the vessel that must be filled with more water from below. The pump in every tree can pull water up from more than 32 feet, which is the limit for man-made pumps.
The engineering excellence and power of the silent pump that delivers water within the tree is a witness for our Creator God and against chance evolution!
Dear Father in heaven, surely even the unnoticed things of the creation bear witness to You. Help me to be a witness of Your forgiveness for us through Your Son, Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.
Photo: Sunlight shining through redwoods in Muir Woods. Redwoods grow as tall as 379 feet and up to 26 feet in diameter at chest height.
NEW RECIPE FOR PRIMORDIAL SOUP
Acts 17:25
“Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things...”
One of the most difficult problems for those who believe in evolution is to explain the origin of life without reference to God.
Science is now aware that even the elementary living cell is, in reality, extremely complex, and it has become increasingly difficult to explain this without a Creator God. The most popular explanation says that the early Earth had an atmosphere of ammonia, methane, hydrogen and water. Oxygen had to be absent because it pretty much ruins the chemical reactions that are needed to form even simple biological molecules. It was also important that this early Earth be protected from ultraviolet radiation, which also ruins the chemistry.
But this picture of the early Earth has been shown to be totally inaccurate. For one thing, geologists can see from the oldest rocks that the Earth has always had plenty of oxygen in its atmosphere. Then astronomers have pointed out that a younger sun would be turning out l0,000 times more ultraviolet radiation than it does now.
Modern science is finding out that what the Bible says is true. Scientists just won’t admit it. The Earth has always had oxygen, since life needing oxygen has been around from the first week that the Earth existed. And life can only be explained as the work of the Source and Author of life, our Creator God.
Dear Father, I thank You that as the worldly wise are confused by their own false wisdom, You have made the Wisdom of the Ages in Jesus Christ available to the simple through the Bible. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Patrick Huyghe. “New Recipe for Cosmic Soup.” Science Digest, May 1983, pp. 42-44. Photo: Alexander Oparin, the Soviet biochemist who in 1924 put forward a theory of life on Earth developing through gradual chemical evolution of carbon-based molecules in primordial soup.
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