The above picture is a book many of my peers refer to as the "bio bible". It received it's name from the sheer usefulness of its contents and the number of times it has saved us from failing grades (I paid nearly $50 for this beast, and I'd do it again, too). While this idea of correlating a science text book to Scripture may seem like heresy to some, I'd argue that with the right heart, it's not too far off.
You see, I start every morning with a worship service.
Not the stuffy kind of worship service with children squirming on hard wooden pews and crazy old ladies sporting bird feather hats.
It's more like 40 desks filled with teenage bodies (live ones, mind you - though half asleep), writing fervously on sheets of notebook paper.
First period IB Biology SL.
Probably one of the greatest worship services ever (okay, so there's still children squirming in hard chairs, and Dr. White is pretty crazy, but we can't win them all).
Now, the whole idea of God and science may seem like an oxymoron to some, but the more and more I study biology, the more and more I am absolutely amazed by God. I first came across this idea last year in chemistry, when my teacher was explaining how amazing it is that the elements are arranged in such neat and convenient patterns (period patterns... periodic table... get it?), and how this had to be just so for the world to come to be. A light bulb went off, and I was filled with awe. It wasn't a chance happening that these elements to perfectly lined up in their fancy little rows with their electrons in just the right places, behaving so well. It was a powerful God who enjoyed fancy little rows with their electrons in just the right places, behaving so well, that created the elements just so. I love a God of order and sense.
I'm amazed by the beauty of God's creation. How perfectly everything lines up. How two gametes (eggs and sperm... track with me here, you'll be amazed, I promise) can join together - millions of sperm, and as soon as the first one reaches the egg, there is an instant infusion. A barrier is placed around the egg to prevent other sperm from trying to join, and meiosis (cell division of sex cells) begins. Life is created. In six weeks, a heart will beat and a gender will be determined (sorry ladies, you're the default gender). 23 chromosomes joined with 23 chromosomes. They will split once in meiosis to make 2, then split again in mitosis to make 4... and soon, you will have a beautiful you (cue song).
It doesn't stop there - nothing goes to waste. Umbilical cords? They can get up to six feet long. The two arteries and one vein that for nine months somehow nourished a growing baby in an aqueous solution can be harvested for vein transplants in adults. The rain that falls? It's absorbed by the soil and used by plants or humans. Excess is evaporated back into the atmosphere to create new rain clouds again in the hydrolic cycle. Death? The energy and minerals in that organism decomposes back into the earth to replenish the soil, which will grow flora, which will be consumed by new organisms. Even fecal matter can be recycled. Nearly everything is either matter or energy (or both) - these two things can neither be created nor destroyed. God gave us everything we'd ever need in just six short days.
The God of the universe made everything just so perfectly so... Down to the tiny cell, where everything is just so... ordered and perfect.
See, to me, science isn't like my other subjects. It's not history, the study of man's repetitive sin. It's not psychology, where we try to find ulterior motives other than sinful desire to explain our shenanigans. It's not math (nobody likes math, period). Science is the study of the refulgent Creation.
So there you have it. I live and die by my bio class. It sucks the life out of me (no pun) every morning, but it also gives me new life. I walk out of D-01 every morning thoroughly ineffibly in awe and a little bit more aware of a great big diety who's done great big things that I can't even fathom.
