Precious Life

Every person starts as one fertilized egg, which by adulthood has turned into roughly 37 trillion cells. But those cells have a formidable challenge. These cells must copy 3.2 billion base pairs of DNA perfectly, about once every 24 hours. To speed up the process, cells start replication in multiple spots with people having tens of thousands of them throughout their genomes.

However, this poses its own challenge: How to know where to start and how to time everything. Without precision control, some DNA might get copied twice, causing cellular pandemonium. Bad things can happen if replication doesn’t start correctly. For DNA to be copied, the DNA double helix must open up, and the resulting single strands are vulnerable to breakage or the process can get stuck.

It takes a tightly coordinated dance involving dozens of proteins for the DNA-copying machinery to start replication at the right point in the cell’s life cycle. Keeping tight reins on the kickoff of DNA replication is particularly important to avoid that pandemonium.

Today, researchers are making steps toward a full understanding of the molecular checks and balances that have evolved in order to ensure that each origin initiates DNA copying once and only once, to produce precisely one complete new genome.

Possible Preaching Angle:

3,000 years ago, King David exclaimed, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Ps. 139:14). Scientific knowledge has increased exponentially since that time and we should be even more in awe of God’s creative genius on display.

The San Diego City Council has unanimously voted to restrict public access to Point La Jolla and Boomer Beach, a popular sea lion rookery, in an effort to protect the marine mammals from harassment. The decision follows increasing incidents of visitors crossing barriers and engaging in risky behavior with the sea lions.

Phillip Musegaas, the executive director for the San Diego Coastkeeper, highlighted the potential dangers of human-sea lion interactions, particularly during the pupping season. According to him, such interactions can lead to aggressive behavior from the sea lions or the abandonment of their young. The Council's decision aims to maintain a balance between public access and wildlife protection, allowing recreational ocean activities while preventing disturbances to the sea lions like petting or posing for photos.

City Council member Joe LaCava stressed the significance of preserving the unique coastal experience for visitors while safeguarding the natural environment. The decision to restrict access is not only aimed at protecting the sea lions but also ensuring the safety of visitors. With concerns about the rocky terrain and the potential risks of falling, the commission aims to prevent accidents. With the new mandate empowering rangers to enforce violations, there is a collective recognition of the need to protect both the sea lions and visitors alike.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Creation; Stewardship; Environmentalism — The God of the universe has given us the great task of caring for our planet. We have an operating manual for our planet right in front of us in the Bible, and we must allow that manual to change our thinking and behavior. How are we taking care of the earth that God put in our care?

Near the end of the Civil War, there was a touching scene that showed the gentleness and tenderness of President Abraham Lincoln. While he was visiting near the battle lines, Lincoln noticed three kittens, who had lost their mother. Moved by their mewing, he picked them up to comfort them.

Lincoln said, “Poor little creatures, don’t cry; you’ll be taken good care of.” To an officer, the President added, “Colonel, I hope you will see that these poor little motherless waifs are given plenty of milk and treated kindly.” The colonel replied “I will see, Mr. President, that they are taken in charge by the cook of our mess and are well cared for.”

One of the officers on the scene said, “It was a curious sight at an army headquarters, upon the eve of a great military crisis, in the nation’s history, to see the hand which had affixed the signature to the Emancipation Proclamation, and had signed the commissions of all the army men who served in the cause of the Union … tenderly caressing three stray kittens.”

Lincoln’s biographer, John Meacham adds, “It was not only curious—it was revealing. In the midst of carnage, fresh from a battlefield strewn with the corpses of those he had ordered in the battle, Lincoln was seeking some kind of affirmation of life, some evidence of innocence, some sense of kindliness amid cruelty. The orphaned kittens were a small thing, but they were there, and his focus on their welfare was a passing human moment in a vast drama.”

In his book, Every Deep-Drawn Breath, Critical Care Doctor Wes Ely explores the ordinary miracle of taking a breath.

We take for granted our ability to breathe. We do it again and again, one breath after another, without thinking. Yet the lungs are incredibly complex, the respiratory system made up of so many different actors, structures, and functions. Cells with hair like projections called cilia move fluid, goblet cells secrete mucus, and column-like cells line and protect. Our lungs have cells that are integral parts of our nervous system, lymphatic system … and immune system. They contain cartilage, elastic tissue, connective tissue, muscle, and glands, and all of this gives rise to a system of airways that is 1500 miles long, from New York City to Dallas, and filters every ounce of air entering the body.

Dr. Ely feels so much admiration for the simple process of taking a breath that he compares it to how “an artist admires a Rembrandt [painting], the way the light, the colors, the brushstrokes all work together to create something more.”

In his book The Life We’re Looking For, author Andy Crouch relates the following spiritual prayer experience. While stuck in Chicago’s O’Hare airport on a cold winter night, he needed some exercise, so he tried the following prayer walk experiment:

As I walked, I decided, I would try to take note of each person I passed. I would pay as much attention to each of them as I could … and say to myself as I saw each one, image bearer. I passed a weary looking man in a suit. Image bearer. Right behind him was a woman in a sari. Image bearer. A mother pushed a stroller with a young baby; a young man, presumably the baby’s father, walked next to her, half holding, half dragging a toddler by the hand. Image bearer, image bearer, image bearer, image bearer. A ramp worker walked by in a bulky coat and safety vest. Image bearer.

By the time I reached the corridor where Terminal 1 connects to Terminal 2, I had passed perhaps 200 people, glancing at their faces just long enough to say to myself, image bearer. I had six more concourses to go. ... After about 45 minutes of walking—image bearer, image bearer, image bearer … I was at the most distant gates.

By the end of the walk … I had passed people in every stage of life and health, [many] national and ethnic backgrounds, some traveling together, most seemingly alone. The stories I would never learn behind each of those faces … the possibility and futility each one had no one and would know … carried an emotional and spiritual weight that I can still feel, years later. From time to time, I repeat this exercise on a city street, in a coffee shop, even driving on the highway with faces are just a blur behind a windshield. Image bearer, image bearer, image bearer. It never fails to move me.

The 20th Century American Catholic writer, Walker Percy, wrote frequently about how life in the modern world alienates us from things that truly matter. His most famous book, The Moviegoer, describes a successful stock broker in his late-twenties. In the book, a man named Binx Bolling, hops from relationship to relationship and whose greatest happiness comes from watching movies. (Can any Netflix bingers relate?) But then something happens that makes him want more than the “everydayness of his own life.” The rest of the novel is about his search for things that truly matter.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Binx’ awakening sounds very similar to the experience of people today. “What is the nature of the search? you ask. The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the search is to be onto something. Not to be onto something is to be in despair.” (Walker Percy)

For a summary of the book: click here.

In his book, Paul Gould writes:

The writings of Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Marilynne Robinson are infused with a sacramental theology. Her writing helps us see and savor the divine in the midst of the mundane. In an oft-cited passage, she invites readers to consider the ordinary—in this instance water—from a new vantage point. In her book Gilead, the Congregationalist minister John Ames knows his time on earth is coming to an end, so he writes a series of letters to his young son. Ames shares a memory of an earlier time when he watched a young couple stroll along on a leisure morning:

“The sun had come up brilliantly after a heavy rain, and the trees were glistening and very wet. On some impulse, plain exuberance, I suppose, the fellow jumped up and caught hold of a branch, and a storm of luminous water came pouring down on the two of them, and they laughed and took off running. The girl sweeping water off her hair and her dress as if she were a little bit disgusted, but she wasn't. It was a beautiful thing to see, like something from a myth.”

“I don't know why I thought of that now, except perhaps because it is easy to believe in such moments that water was made primarily for blessing, and only secondarily for growing vegetables or doing the wash. I wish I had paid more attention to it. My list of regrets may seem unusual, but who can know that they are, really. This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you can give it.”

Does a person’s view of what it means to be human influence their ethical decision-making?

John Evans, a sociologist at the University of California, San Diego analyzed data from 3,500 US adults in order to find out. The results: Those who believed humans bear the image of God held more humanitarian attitudes than those who did not.

The more that respondents agreed with the purely biological definition of a human, the less likely they were to view people as special. They were less willing to stop genocide and more likely to accept the ideas of buying kidneys, suicide to save money, and taking blood from prisoners. By comparison, those who believed humans are made in the image of God were less likely to agree with money-saving suicide or nonconsensual blood donation.

The editor of New Scientist, where Evans’ research was published, commented, “If this preliminary result is upheld by further research, it will come as an unwelcome shock to scientific materialists.”

In 2000, two parents founded a pizzeria in Rome with the goal of employing people with Down syndrome. Inspired by their son, who had the condition, they named it La Locanda dei Girasoli (translated as “The Sunflower Inn”).

Today, the restaurant employs eight differently-abled people (five with Down syndrome) and boasts a 4.5-star review on TripAdvisor, making it a destination of sorts. According to their website, the restaurant’s goal is to “promote the employment of people with Down syndrome, ennobling and giving dignity to the individual through a path to training and work placement.” Learn more about their story below:

With the abortion rate of those with Down syndrome now edging 90 percent, modern society has increasingly adopted a distorted view of those who are differently-abled. To counter the popular prejudices and misconceptions, the restaurant also seeks to further “mutuality, solidarity, and respect” for those with Down syndrome.

“The initial reaction of customers is often curiosity and even hesitation,” explains Ugo Menghini, one of the restaurant’s managers. “At first they’re surprised. Then they’re interested. Not only do they see that our workers are great at getting the job done. They see a human side to the restaurant that makes people happy. They have a friendly exchange with us so there’s always a pleasant dynamic.”

It’s a beautiful display of the transformative power of business and the abundance bound up in all people, regardless of their background or physical condition. Entrepreneurs, business owners, and managers would do well to heed these stories and respond in turn. What we commonly label as a “disability” may very well be the exact opposite.

When given the chance and investment, the differently-abled are bound to surprise us and contribute to our economic future in new and profound ways.

David Finn, an acclaimed professional photographer and lifelong New Yorker, wrote a fascinating book, How to Look At Everything. Finn recounts how he was affected by a single photograph he took while amassing a portfolio of shots for use in a book documenting life in New York City. This particular photo was taken out a car window and captured a man walking down the street while reading a book (a pedtextrian in the predigital age). Only after Finn had developed the film, did he notice a second man seated on a stoop as the reader-walker went by. The juxtaposition of the two men made for a most arresting image, one that prompted inner refection.

Finn concluded: "Why did I consider it such a revelation? Why did so many familiar sights now look so different? It was because I had never looked so intently at the scenes of daily life before. And as I looked through my viewfinder, my mind gave new meaning to what I was seeing. I saw more than what was there because I was paying such close attention to what I was photographing." Finn no longer saw himself as just a photographer, but rather a "walker in the city." This different look at himself transformed his ability to look outside himself.

Want to be more skilled at looking? Look intently at the scenes of your daily life. Pay closer attention to where you are and what you are doing. See yourself as an observer, a walker in your city.

Stop. Look. Listen.

Pastor and author Eugene Peterson notes that it's easy for us to look at the grandeur and beauty of the mountains or to bask in the warmth of the spring sun and recognize the beauty of creation. Yet, sometimes we ignore the people right in front of us. Peterson writes,

Several years ago one of my students who lived a distance away and rode a crowded bus to the college each day said to his wife as he went out the door one morning, "I'm just going to go out and immerse myself in God's creation today." The next day his parting words were the same. On the third day, she called him back, "Don't you think you ought to go to class today? A couple of days walking in the woods or on the beach is okay, but don't you think enough is enough?"

He said, "Oh, I've been going to class every day."

"Then what," she said, "is all this business about immersing yourself in creation?"

"Well, I spend forty minutes on the bus each morning and afternoon. Can you think of a setting more thick with creation than that—all these people created, created in the image of God, created male and female?"

"I never thought of that," she said.

Peterson concludes, "[We need to embrace] the people around us with the same delight as we do the hawks soaring above us and the violets blooming at our feet. Men and women, children and the elderly, the beautiful and the plain, the blind and the deaf, amputees and paralytics, the mentally impaired and the emotionally distraught—each a significant and sacred detail of nature, of God's creation."

How much is a human life worth? In attempting to answer that question The British science magazine New Scientist noted the following thoughts:

• In wrongful death lawsuits, juries and judges decide what amount should be paid in each case. For the overwhelming majority of cases, there is no actual value placed on the deceased person's life. As one legal expert notes, "There's damages for pain and suffering before you die, there's damages for loss of income to your family after you die. But for the life itself that was lost, it's worth nothing."
• The families of US soldiers who die on active duty receive between $250,000 and $800,000.
• The US government paid $10,000 to the family of a brother and sister mistakenly shot and killed at a checkpoint in Iraq.
• The total value of the basic elements in the human body (carbon, calcium, iron etc.) for a 175-pound man: $118,000.
• The largest life insurance policy ever purchased was taken out by an individual in Hong Kong, worth $250 million dollars) Editor’s Note: The policy was issued in March of 2024

Darryl Dash write in the "Hoarder Next Door":

The suite next to our condo is a small studio. The neighbors who lived there when we moved in fit the profile: young, professional, and private. That's why I was surprised when the new guy moved in. He was older. He didn't work. He was pleasant enough, but also awkward.

His place was a disaster. When I left my suite, I'd sometimes see into his. Laundry baskets were stacked from floor to ceiling. A trail of debris began at his door and continued down the hallway. I'd sometimes find his cart and his backpack outside his door. We've always wanted to hold a floor party. We didn't. We never invited our neighbor for a coffee. We'd make small talk in the hallway, but I never learned his name.

On Monday night, I found police officers in the hallway. More police arrived, and someone in a suit. Someone must have complained, I thought. The police must have called a social worker. But then I heard them talk about the coroner.

My neighbor died last weekend. They found his body on Monday. A police seal now secures his door. My neighbor is gone. So is the man who was killed by a falling tree limb in a local park last Friday. So is the man who was hit by a train near me early on Monday morning. Death surrounds me this week, even in a young community like Liberty Village.

Nothing might have changed if I'd invited my neighbor for a coffee, but I would have known his name. I might have known his story. Now I'll only know him as the hoarder next door. And that's no way to know a neighbor.

A pamphlet published in 1951 titled The Gift of Life contains some traditional advice about human sexuality and the sanctity of life. For instance, the first page states, "The gift of life is shown to us with the birth of each new baby." Then on pages 21-22 the authors inform readers (presumably the average American teenager), "If one of the new male sperm meets and unites with an egg cell, a new life begins." The cover has a picture of a happy family—a mom and dad and three children—apparently leaving a church building.

It's all pretty standard stuff for a 1950's-era booklet, until you notice the publisher information. It reads: "Distributed by Planned Parenthood of America, Inc., 501 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N.Y."

Author Randy Alcorn recalled a two-month missions trip that he and his family took some years ago that included a visit to Egypt. While in Egypt, Alcorn's hosts took him to visit an abandoned graveyard located at the end of a garbage-lined alley. The host pointed out one tombstone in particular—that of William Borden (1887-1913), heir to the Borden dairy estate. William was a millionaire by 21, but he renounced his fortune, giving nearly all his wealth to missions. His heart's desire was to take the gospel to Muslims in China. On his way to China, William stopped in Egypt to study Arabic, but four months later he contracted spinal meningitis and died at the age of 25.

Alcorn writes:

I dusted off the inscription on the headstone of Borden's grave. After describing his love for Christ and his commitment to and his love for the Muslim people; and his sacrifices for God's kingdom; the inscription ended with some words I wrote down on the spot—and I have never forgotten them to this day. The inscription ended with, "Apart from faith in Christ there is no explanation for such a life."

Then Alcorn wrote, "And I thought, Lord, what's the explanation for my life?"

An article in National Geographic identified three regions of the world where people have consistently shown longer life spans: Okinawa, Sardinia, and Loma Linda, California. Dan Buettner, a researcher and explorer decided to do a follow-up study to determine if there were more regions to be discovered. His team found an abnormally large number of people living past 90—even into their 100s—on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica.

Intrigued, Buettner and a large research team made their way to the region to discover what factors aided in living a longer life. They found that longevity is due in part to diet, sun exposure, and source of water, but they also found the following factors to be crucial in the survival of the people:

• The people on the Nicoya Peninsula have a strong sense of purpose. They "feel needed and want to contribute to a greater good."
• They choose to focus on the family. Persons over 100 years of age in this region "tend to live with their families…. Children or grandchildren provide support and a sense of purpose and belonging."
• They have strong social networks. Their neighbors visit frequently, and they all seem to know the value of listening, laughing, and appreciating what they have.
• They know the value of hard work. They even manage to "find joy in everyday physical chores."
• They understand and appreciate their historical roots and spiritual traditions. In essence, they know their story.

The modern world has had far too little understanding of the art of keeping young. Its notion of progress has been to pile one thing on top of another, without caring if each thing was crushed in turn. People forgot that the human soul can enjoy a thing most when there is time to think about it and be thankful for it. And by crowding things together they lost the sense of surprise; and surprise is the secret of joy.