Manna and Coffee

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20, NIV

Our Heavenly Father is a Master Inventor.  As a scientist, I see the world around me through slightly different lenses.  When I see a flower, a bird in flight, a mountain or an ocean, my heart soars as I enjoy the natural beauty.  But this appreciation is heightened when I think about the biological miracles that are occurring inside the flower, the bird, the mountain and the ocean.  My fellow scientists often admit during technical conversations that man understands only a fraction of the incredibly complex processes of life.

At a recent scientific conference one of the “hot” research topics was the study of water molecules, and how they interact with biological surfaces such as proteins.  Water is an amazing chemical composed of an oxygen atom that is covalently bound (stuck together) to two hydrogen atoms by the sharing of electrons (H₂O).  A cool thing about this simple, but amazingly complex molecule, is that the oxygen atom is more “hungry” for the negatively charged electrons in the H-O-H bonds and pulls them closer to itself.  This phenomena causes the two hydrogen atoms in the water molecule to become more positively charged.  Since opposites attract, the more electronegative oxygen atom then forms a weak bond called a “hydrogen bond” with a buddy water molecule.  The hydrogen bond that is formed between the electronegative oxygen atom of one water molecule and the more postive, electron “hungry” hydrogen atom of it’s buddy occurs at precise angles and predictable geometries.  Although this phenomena has been known for many years, scientists are just now starting to fully appreciate how water molecules interact with each other and the rest of the electronegative/positive atoms (hydrogens, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, ect) on protein surfaces to help to stablize each other’s need for electrons.  Water molecules are critical in helping to stabilize folded protein structure and surfaces, but they have to “be pushed out of the way” when a protein surface interacts with a drug molecule or another large protein in incredibly complex biological interactions.

As I was stretching my mind pondering these things, I could not help but clap my hands in my heart for the Creator God of the universe.  I recently explained to a colleague that studying science is like going into my Father’s workshop to study His inventions.  As I move levers and wheels, and take things apart trying to understand the function of each component in an invention, I am really just trying to understand my Heavenly Father better.  I can’t tell you how many times that a smile has crossed my face when I stumble upon a new understanding about some small part of one of His wonderful contraptions.

Sometimes I just like to sit in His chair and look at all the tools and inventions littering His workbench.  I think that our Father is pleased when His children spend time in His workshop trying to know Him.  Critical study of His masterpieces helps one to understand a few of the thoughts that He may have been thinking when He created them.  Of all the people in the world who should appreciate and believe in God, I believe that scientists should be leading the way.  We spend our lives working together stretching our minds to understand how our Father’s inventions work.  Most of us do this so that we can use this knowledge to help our brothers and sisters in the world.  So how about it, are you ready to spend some time studying and learning in our Father’s workshop?