Many of us look for provable miracles to bolster our faith. It is those unexplainable events that seem to provide the proof we need to overcome our doubts. At the same time, we become so accustomed to the routine of our daily lives that we lose sight of the most obvious miracle of all.
Life itself.
We may quibble over the idea of Adam and Eve being the first humans. We may struggle to reconcile the concept of creation with the discoveries of science and archaeology. We may celebrate the miraculous survival of people who experience near-death events. We ponder the stories of those who claim to have suffered death and returned to life.
Somehow it never occurs to us that every breath we take is the result of one of God’s greatest miracles, one of His greatest works.
By now, most of us are generally familiar with the basic concepts of DNA, genes, and the blending of male and female traits in human reproduction. We understand that offspring traits are the result of what seems to be a random combination of traits from the parents.
But that is just scratching the surface.
We don’t often think of it, but the fertilized egg in a woman’s womb is a very simple first step in producing the child that will grow to be a fully functioning adult. It is then that the real miracle begins and continues to expand throughout the pregnancy.
We might think of the DNA/chromosome package as the blueprint for building the human being. The idea that all that information could be contained in such a microscopic package is astounding. Yet the greater miracle is the sequence of events that is the development of the fetus.
We know that the growth of the fetus from the earliest stages involves cellular division. One cell divides and becomes two, then the two becomes four, and on and on. What remains unexplained is how those dividing cells become specialized.
How does one cell start a family that becomes an eye, while a neighboring cell starts the process of becoming a heart or a liver? What determines these choices? It would seem that all these instructions must exist in the earliest stages, but how and when those dividing cells begin and continue to specialize is the great mystery.
If we need to witness miracles to believe in the Creator, perhaps all we need to do is look in the mirror.