By Doug Dezotell
Musings and Memories
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
After He did that, to top it all off, God created human life, a man and woman, in His image.
Then God saw everything that He had made, and “indeed it was very good.”
We live in an amazing world.
And, the greatest of all creations is man himself, the marvelous machine—precise and efficient.
Rev. Bill Jahns, minister and electrical engineer, wrote in the introduction to his book, “The Wonders of the Human Body:” “What is the most complex, ingenious thing in the universe? A strong case can be made for it being the human body! Our bodies are composed of amazingly complex organs like the eye, the kidney and the liver. And the human brain itself makes the most advanced computer today look like a Tinkertoy. The human body performs incredibly complex functions on a daily basis. This is evidence of a very intelligent Designer and Creator.”
David, son of Jesse, shepherd, singer/songwriter, King of Judah, and Child of God, wrote these lyrics to our Creator in Psalm 139: 13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.
King David sang: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works.”
Science says:
-If a human being’s DNA were uncoiled, it would stretch 10 billion miles, from Earth to Pluto and back.
-Messages from the human brain travel along nerves at up to 200 miles an hour
-The brain contains 86 billion nerve cells joined by 100 trillion connections. This is more than the number of stars in the Milky Way.
The American writer and professor of biochemistry, Isaac Asimov, said: “The human brain is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe.”
Again, Science says:
-An adult human body is made up of about 7 octillion atoms.
-For an adult human, taking just one step uses up to 200 muscles.
-A human skeleton renews itself completely every 10 years.
-Within three days of dying, the enzymes that digested a person’s food will begin to digest that person’s body.
The Hebrew historian wrote in Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Solomon, son of David, the wise King of Judah, knowing that man came from dust he wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:7: “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.”
Science says:
-Every hour, humans shed about 600,000 particles of skin, or about 1.5 pounds every year. By the time a person is 70 years old, they will have lost about 105 pounds of skin.
-Like fingerprints, each human tongue has its own unique print.
-The average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime, enough to fill two swimming pools.
-The lining in a person’s stomach is replaced every 4 to 5 days to prevent it from digesting itself
-An adult human’s small intestine is about 18 to 23 feet long, which is about four times as long as an adult is tall.
Again, Psalm 139:14 says: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.”
Science says: -An adult’s skin weighs between 8 and 11 pounds. Its surface area is about 18-22 square feet.
-Humans spend about five years of their lives eating
-An adult’s stomach can hold over two quarts (1.9 l) of food. That’s enough to fill four large or eight small drinking glasses.
The Hebrew Pharisee and Apostle, Paul of Tarsus, wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:13: “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them.”
Science says:
-The average human produces about three to eight ounces of feces a day.
-A human heart beats over 3 billion times during an average human lifespan
-The only part of the body that has no blood supply is the cornea of the eye. It receives oxygen directly from the air.
-A human eye can distinguish between approximately 10 million different colors.
Matthew, the former tax collector and Apostle of Jesus, wrote in his Gospel, 6:22-24: “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”
Science says:
-A person takes about 23,040 breaths a day, or about 672,768,000 breaths in a lifetime.
-There are over 300 million capillaries in your lungs. If you stretched them out end to end they would reach across the United States.
-If you laid all of your blood vessels end to end they would stretch 60,000 miles, or around the world nearly two and a half times.
-Apart from identical twins every single person on Earth has a unique smell.
The Hebrew historian wrote in Genesis 1:27: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
It would seem that Isaac Asimov and Science agree with King David’s lyrics, that we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made.”
I know that I do.
Doug Dezotell is “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and serves as the pastor of Cannon UMC in Shelbyville, and he is a columnist for the Bedford County Post. Doug is a husband, a father, and a grandfather: all who are “fearfully and wonderfully made” just like him. Doug can be contacted by phone at 931-607-5191 or by email at dougmdezotell@gmail.com. Thank you for reading the Bedford County Post.
