God’s Knowledge, Numbers

Can you count to infinity? And can you come up with an infinite number of names?

“He counts the number of the stars. He gives names to all of them.” Psalm 147:4. He spoke them into existence “by the breath of His mouth.” He numbered them and gave them names.

And here’s my translation/paraphrase of Psalm 139:13-18:

“Lord, You created me and everything in me.
You assembled me in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am miraculously and astonishingly engineered.

All Your works are wondrous.
I can see that clearly just by considering my own body.
Even before I was conceived, You prepared the blueprint of me
and saw the chemicals for my DNA
while they were still scattered somewhere in the earth.

You foresaw all my days and inscribed them on Your Scroll
before a single one of them came to be.

The countless ways You think of me are meticulously detailed,
and how great is the sum total of all those ways!
If I tried to count them,
it would be like counting granules of sand on an endless beach.

You have also thoroughly planned my eternal destiny.
When I fall asleep for the last time,
I will wake up and live forever in Your glorious presence.”

OK, let’s start. One, two, three, four…

Biological Engineer

Easy intructions for building a human being!

Lord, You created me and everything in me.

You assembled me in my mother’s womb.
I praise You because I am miraculously and astonishingly engineered.
All Your works are wondrous.
I can see that clearly just by considering my own body.
Even before I was conceived, You prepared the blueprint of me
and saw the chemicals for my DNA
while they were still scattered somewhere in the earth.

You foresaw all my days and inscribed them on Your Scroll
before a single one of them came to be.
The countless ways You think of me are meticulously detailed,
and how great is the sum total of all those ways!
If I tried to count them,
it would be like counting granules of sand on an endless beach.

You have also thoroughly planned my eternal destiny.
When I fall asleep for the last time,
I will wake up and live forever in Your glorious presence.

Selection from Psalm 139, my paraphrase.

Dust + the breath of God = a living soul

May not be strictly biblical, but it is a pretty cool picture

Michelangelo’s way cool version

“Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed  into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  Genesis 2:7.

All things were created by God out of nothing, with one exception:  Man.  Man was special in that he was “formed” from the dust of the ground, not spoken into existence. With the discovery of DNA, such a notion doesn’t seem quite so far-fetched (nor the idea that Eve was formed from a place in Adam’s side). When God breathed into the chemical Adam body, it wasn’t just oxygen. It was a life-giving wind, powerful and mystical,  suggesting a process far beyond our ability to comprehend. Once created, Adam and Eve were further empowered to reproduce other human beings, as we have done to this very day.

Our “soul” is the mysterious spark or fire of life and sense of being that He has infused deep within us.  We cannot see it or define it or measure it, but we cannot live without it; it distinguishes us from dirt.  We are smart, self-aware, and willful. Our bodies are self-repairing and self-regulating to a degree that exceeds our own intelligence and understanding. I don’t understand my autonomic nervous system, but it keeps me alive. I don’t understand how or why my brain works, but I think with it. Scientists and writers have imagined almost-human robots and androids. But who can visualize or create a soul?  Only God. That being true, what does it tell you about who God is?