the mystery and awe

I've always loved biology. I enjoy learning about biology so much, I've actually contemplated taking biology books out of the library just for fun (but I haven't gone that far off my rocker!) One of the fun things to me with growing a baby is knowing what all is going on. I read an incredible book when pregnant with Ivan and now have a magazine synopsis version to read during this pregnancy. Both of them came to a point in their depictions, in the second month, where they admit that with all the scientific advancement and genetic understanding, no one can explain many of the mysteries of the growth of embryos. About a month and a half ago, our second child was but a bunch of cells multiplying, some kind of awe inspiring mass floating, growing, expanding. This we can comprehend (to some degree). But at the incredibly tiny size of one tenth of an inch long, the cells become three distinct layers, each one with a stagering amount of various roles and functions. What no one can understand is how each cell knows what it's to become. In the same layer, some cells develop into the brain, nerves, skin and even hair, nails and tooth enamel. Another layer becomes bones, muscles, blood vessels and blood, the heart, part of the lungs, the kidneys and some reproductive organs. The inner-most layer takes on the task of becoming the liver, intestines, urinary tract and the rest of the lungs. To our unknowing eye, all the cells seem the same. They carry the same genetic code and yet each cell knows what to do, how to be different and bring to perfection this little being. One of the greatest tragedies of course is when something is amiss in a baby or newborn, but the more I read and understand the complicated process of growing a baby, the more I am amazed that any baby comes out breathing and able to function. There is just so much involved! One detail that I failed to add last post was that those pictures of our growing baby make the embryo look big. He or she is only the size of a grain of rice!!! Can you believe it? And yet all the internal organs are in place (although not yet fully formed or functioning, the lungs don't even need to work until birth).

These are but some of the mysteries and it causes me to be in awe of the mystery, of the beauty, of the majesty of creation, of the Plan, of the Lover, of His grace on us. Who are we to deserve such wonder in us, in me??, right in my belly? (Crazy!) We remember being so grateful that Ivan was so healthy, knowing that not everyone has such an easy outcome and thinking how unworthy we are. We just receive it, the love and goodness and we wonder. We wonder at it all and rejoice within our most inner being that we are known fully, completely and that we are loved.