About 35 years ago, I was sitting in a scientific lecture, when something suddenly got my full attention! (By that time, I was married and we had three young children.) A scientist from California held up a striking shell—a chambered nautilus—and pointed out its distinctive spiral pattern. He then undertook a mathematical explanation of the Fibonacci Set. This set is a sequence of numbers in order, and a sequence usually has a rule. This particular one, when plotted on a coordinate plane, will clearly look like a spiral. (Each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, starting with 0 and 1.) A sequence, if continuing in infinity, is called a fractal. Who has not noticed this same spiral or whorl shape which is seen throughout nature? We can find it in a rose, a pineapple, a chameleon’s tail, an ocean wave, and on to the Milky Way.
Whether one views this simple, beautiful pattern as just an easier path nature can take in forming something—or the clear signature of a brilliant engineer—it was a wake-up call for me! A switch had been flipped on—to a very bright light! This bold alarm awakened me out of a mentally sluggish view of our world to a sharp, eye-opening view instead. Sharp? Yes! In the days ahead, I began to see amazing order and directly-related purpose! I startled to notice patterns, relationships and corresponding systems that, before, had seemed rather dull, unrelated and irrelevant. It was as if a “paradigm shift” took place in my thinking: With a sense of wonder, I could see astonishing, intentional beauty in nature as never before! Yes, someone could say, “Aha! A nautilus shell does not always correspond exactly to a graph on a coordinate plane!” Are we not ALL glad however, that fixed, complicated, mathematical and physical laws which our universe must obey to ensure order (or we would not be here) are exact! No, they are super exact—constant and without variation. Think about it!
A Morning Sunrise
Remember Ebenezer Scrooge? Enduring a dark night of fitful sleep, he was interrupted by three serious wake-up calls. When morning finally arrived, he was a changed man! Like Charles Dickens’ redeemed character, I began to see life from a new perspective. Scrooge was a little giddy and so was I. Now with a different worldview, I was determined to rethink what I had previously learned in my science classes. Actually, it was now the same worldview I had first learned as a young girl—the one which had made sense to me!
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I continue to be in awe of Creation as I learn more about the wonder and wisdom of Jesus Christ, “Who formed the creatures with His Word and then pronounced them good” (a line from a favorite hymn, “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Isaac Watts).
Life-changing events often prompt us to communicate about what means the most to us—especially if we’ve been “holding back” our thoughts. Perhaps it was losing our beloved Paul in 2015 (at the age of 26 to cancer) that stirred me to finally write a rather lengthy essay, which, by the way, took me most of last year.
As I had gladly helped Paul study for his Biology 101 test–at our local university–I was taken back that his textbook still taught long-age evolution (only) to explain the origin of life. Although I knew this teaching was the "gold standard" for secular biology, I had experienced quite a wake-up call in my life, when a science related fact opened my eyes again to the truths of the Bible. You see, although I had been a born-again Christian for many years, the secular science realm still had a foothold in my thinking. The words in my blog are an excerpt from testimony about how my life was turned from clouds of darkness to "the wonder of light."
My dear friend…
Debby and her husband live in Missouri enjoying their three sons and their families nearby. Their daughter and family live in beautiful Wisconsin. You might see Debby in St. Joseph driving around their little blue Honda with her license plate which says, “N 6DAYS” – for the glory of God!
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