The Glue of Creation

Okay, I had seen this before.  And maybe some of you have as well... But, if this is new to even one person it is worth taking the time to post it.  This is one of many scientific discoveries that prove how wonderful and thorough our Creator was and is!

FROM A DOCTOR :  A couple of days ago I was running  on my treadmill and watching a DVD sermon by Louie Giglio... And I was BLOWN AWAY!  I want to share what I learned.... He (Louie) was talking about how inconceivably BIG our God is... How He spoke the universe into being... How He breathes stars out of His mouth that are huge raging balls of fire.. . Then He went on to speak of how this star-breathing, universe creating God ALSO knitted our human bodies together with amazing detail and wonder. At this point I am LOVING it (fascinating from a medical standpoint, you know.) . And I was remembering how I was constantly amazed during medical school as I learned more and more about God's handiwork. I remember so many times thinking..'How can ANYONE deny that a Creator did did all of this???'

Louie went on to talk about how we can trust that the God Who created all this, also has the power to hold it all together when things seem to be falling apart...how our loving Creator is also our sustainer.  And then I lost my breath. And it wasn't because I was running my treadmill, either!!!

It was because he started talking about laminin.  I knew about laminin.  Here is how Wikipedia describes the

Laminins:   a family of proteins that are an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every animal tissue' 

You see.... Laminins are what hold us together.. LITERALLY. They are cell adhesion molecules. They are what holds one cell of our bodies to the next cell. Without them, we would literally fall apart. And I knew all this already. But what I didn't know is what they LOOKED LIKE..

 But now I do.  And I have thought about it a thousand times since.... Here is what the structure of laminin looks like... AND THIS IS NOT a 'Christian portrayal' of it.. If you look up laminin in any scientific/medical piece of literature, this is what you will see....

 Now tell me that our God is not the coolest!!!  Amazing.

The glue that holds us together... ALL of us.... Is in the shape of the cross.

 Immediately this scripture comes to mind:     

 'He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible And invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; All things were created by him and for him.. He is before all things, and in Him All things HOLD TOGETHER.'                                         Colossians 1:15-17

Actual microscopic photo of laminin.

 Thousands of years before the world knew anything about laminin, Paul penned those words. And now we see that from a very LITERAL standpoint,  we are held together.. One cell to another.... By the cross.  You would never in a quadrillion years convince me that is anything other than the mark of a Creator who knew EXACTLY what laminin 'glue' would look like long before Adam breathed his first breath!!

GENESIS 3:16

     " To the woman He said, 'I will greatly increase your pain in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children.  Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.' "  (NIV)

     Adam and Eve had sinned;  they had disobeyed.  They had not heeded God's warning that to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would result in death.  When faced with temptation each of them made the wrong decision.
     You see, God created us with the ability to make choices.  Otherwise we would be hollow and incomplete - not human.  We learn from making decisions, good and bad, throughout our lives. Disobedience (like eating the forbidden fruit)  is sin.  In fact, it's probably the most frequent sin of mankind.  Somehow, we are often willing to listen to voices other than  the Good Shepherd's, resulting in disobedience to God's word. Sigh.  But, when we recognize and confess our sins God is always there, willing to forgive us, restore our relationship with Him, and help us try not to make the same mistake again.
     Not only did Adam and Eve disobey God, they also tried to hide from Him.  I remember hearing this story as a child and thinking how silly they were to try to hide from God... After all, God knows and sees eveything, right?  Well, then, why do we today try to hide from God through the misuse of drugs, alcohol, materialism, or _____________________? (You fill in the blank.)
     When confronted by God no one in the Garden of Eden was willing to take responsibility for what happened.  Adam blamed Eve.  And Eve blamed the serpent.  Owning up to what we have done isn't usually easy, but it's the right thing to do.  God already knows; don't try to put the blame on someone else or on circumstances.  Confess your sins and ask Him for forgiveness.  Receive God's forgiveness.  Then, move on!
     Okay.  We can easily be forgiven, but sometimes there IS punishment for sin. There ARE consequences for our actions.  (Reminds me, somehow,  of Newton's  third law of motion:  "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.")  In reading through the remainder of the book of Genesis, we find many examples of life's poor choices and their resulting consequences.  Those stories are there for a purpose - to give us examples of what NOT to do, how NOT to act, what NOT to say...  As we read in the Bible, we might feel that some of the punishments seem a bit harsh.  But, we need to remember that God is Holy, totally Righteous,  a completely moral Being. We make our choices, and, if we choose sin, He chooses the consequences.  We don't necessarily understand because all we see is the life we are living.  But, He sees the larger picture called eternity.
     So... when you are tempted, if that little voice in the back of your mind says, "Don't do that",
 DON'T DO IT!

"After The Fall"  My  watercolor collage of Eve and the serpent - after the sin of disobedience.
She doesn't look very happy, does she?