The picture was from a few years ago, and I know there have been numerous experiments (going back even further than that one) to try and grow human body parts on animals, or in vitro using combinations of human and animal cells, etc. But it's just so wrong. For one thing, the rat in this picture looked just so-- well, not what a rat is supposed to be (even beside the ear sticking out of his back)-- emaciated and sort of translucent. Not right. Regardless of your thoughts on animal testing for medical purposes (and you can probably guess mine), this was not right.
And, oh yeah, that ear-- really?
To clarify and get this out of the way right at the start, I am all for a myriad of biomedical advances that have been made and ideas that are still being pursued. We are in an exciting time for figuring out basically how to try and undo the mess we have made of things-- possibly finding cures or treatments for cancer, genetic diseases, and other ailments that seriously limit peoples' health or quality of life.
But we are also in a very dangerous time, and have to ask ourselves how we got here in the first place. Isn't the reason cancer and genetic diseases and a host of other health problems are so rampant because of all the crap we've put out there to begin with? And I'm not talking about a specific source-- people will often try to pinpoint particular substances, whether that is vaccines or food coloring or a certain pesticide or who knows what all else-- but the point is that in the last couple hundred years we have just pumped massive amounts of chemicals of all variety into our air, water, soil, and even directly onto and into our bodies. With so little thought or regard for what the consequences might be. So now yes, we have all this wealth of medical knowledge and technology available to try and fix it all, but it should give us pause-- how much more do we want to try and complicate all this mess?
Back in August, while on a solo overnight camping trip on the Poudre River, while laying on a picnic table gazing into the tops of the pine trees silhouetted against the blue sky, I had a thought about food. And how beautiful and simple and yet not-so-simple it all is, and how it didn't have to be that way.
Because really, did you ever think about food? I mean, God didn't have to create us (and every other living thing) to need food. It seems to obvious to us, because we're so used to us needing food, and our dogs needing kibble and those sheep needing grass to graze and those birds needing seeds and earthworms and the plants in our garden needing good nutrients in the soil to take up. But it didn't have to be that way. God very well could have created us all just to go about life as we are-- either to take in what we need to grow in some other way, absorbing it straight out of the air, maybe, or some other mechanism we can't with our limited imaginations, now imagine-- or to just not need any additional substances to keep our bodies going.
But that is not how he decided to create us all. He, who needs nothing and is all, decided to make people needing food and plants needing light and water and fungi needing something to break down for nutrients and all the other creatures likewise.
Each day, we he literally and directly sustains us. He provides food to our bodies, and we live another day. He in a very direct sense, gives us all we need.
(Now, beside this point is that of course some people-- far, far too many actually-- in this world do not in fact get food every day. That part is on us. God expects us to be the ones to do something about that part. And that is also a whole 'nother topic. Today's point is about how God created us all to be.)
It is so simple. So direct. So relational.
Since I started this post, I discovered Psalm 104. Which I adore beyond words. No other piece of scripture I've encountered so far has better expressed how I relate to the world and through its wonder, worship God. (I have on a couple of occasions read it aloud to friends, and cannot get through it without grinning like an idiot.) I wish I could show it to every person who things evolution has no place in creation, and everyone who thinks God has no place in evolution, and say, "see? do you see?? it all fits together! God works it all in marvelous mystery and delicately designed process! you are both right-- in the sense that you are both wrong, because it is all truth! all the Earth, too, is wonderfully made by God!" but somehow I don't think those sort of people (on either end of that spectrum) would tend to find the same revelation in it that I do.
But I digress. The point of that reference (see? I just get so excited about that Psalm that I lose track of my mind! I think that psalmist and I would have gotten along well) was the references in it about how other parts of creation rely on God as well.
Some excerpts, to this point:
They give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the livestock...
In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
(From Psalm 104, ESV)
It's not just people who rely on God for our "daily bread." The psalmist says that all of the earth is satisfied by God's work, and all look to God for provision of food from his hand. Even the young lions roar for their food from God!
It is so simple. So direct. So relational. He created us, but wasn't done there. He sustains us, all of creation, every day. He provides exactly what we need. He created us to need to take in nutrients-- and so also provided us with this amazing array of different foods to eat, unique in different areas of the world and in different climates, and providing this huge variety of tastes and sights and sensations for us to also enjoy, and this wide spectrum of nutrients that our bodies need for all of these intricate and delicately-balanced internal cellular functions. It's like a symphony.
It is natural, because it is how he wrote the score for nature to be, and in that sense the natural is the supernatural. It seems obvious to the created who know no other option, but it is all by his design.
So what are we doing, growing ears on rats? What is so wrong with the natural order of things-- that beautiful balance, that intricate interwoven creation that God planned and formed and developed for us all-- that we need to keep throwing it further out of whack?
Am I the only one who thinks maybe the solution is not to continue pursuing unnatural solutions to our unnatural problems, but to move back more to the natural way that God set it all up for us? I don't mean sell our cars and our stoves and move to the woods. I just mean instead of praying "Lord, help us grow this ear on this rat so we can try and beat all the problems we have created for ourselves," we pray "Lord, give us this day our daily bread. Nourish our bodies, just this day. Provide us with exactly what you already know we need, because you are the one who formed and fashioned us with great care."
