The EYES have it!!

The playful twinkle in my husband’s eyes were the first thing I noticed about him when we met. It turned out that his eyes were a true reflection of his always laughing, fun loving and kind personality. And it sure didn’t hurt that they were green. I’ve always thought green eyes were rare and amazingly gorgeous.

Our first son has that twinkle too…but with a mischievous glint. I could tell moments after he was born when he picked up his head, looked around the room and gave me a “look out world!” stare. He has charged headlong into life since that day!

When I saw our second son’s eyes, I declared them to be …soulful. Deep in passion and thought. The eyes of the guitarist that strums around a campfire. Sure enough, this is my son who sends us all love notes, is always playing music and is an avid reader at age 5.

How does the eye do that, I wonder? How does it project to the world your intentions and dreams in a single glance? How does it bark orders, say sorry or invite you along for an adventure? And as amazing as just looking at the eye is, it is just the cover page of a much more sophisticated and intricate organ inside.

Evolutionists say that the simple light sensitive spot that allows single celled organisms to detect and move away from light, somehow developed through random DNA mutations into this magnificent organ called the eye. I say:  The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both” (Proverbs 20:12

Charles Darwin, the father of evolution was himself skeptical of the eye having evolved, and this was before many of the intricacies of the eye were even discovered.  He said:

 “to suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.”

You said it, Charlie – absurd. Took the words right out of my mouth.

Let’s take a quick look at the eye. Remember this overview barely skims the surface of its abilities.

First let’s remember that the eye only functions when all its parts are working, and not till then.

An eye without a lens will not work. An eye without an optic nerve connecting it to the brain will not work. An eye without a cornea will not work. And so on and so forth. Until all the parts of the eye are present and functioning – it will NOT work! 

So why would a one celled organism with a light detection spot continue through completely random mutations, to build an increasingly complex organ, over time, that DOES NOT WORK?!! Evolution cannot plan. It cannot anticipate. It cannot hope. (Oh please, please let this mutation produce vitreous humor to fill the eye, and a cornea to start focusing the light, c’mon DNA lemme see what you got!). Yeah…say it again, Charlie –“absurd”

Scientists call this irreducible complexity. Basically saying, if it were any less complex or unfinished, (say it with me). IT WILL NOT WORK!

Let’s focus instead on a few parts of this amazing finished product: the two globes that act as a video camera always adjusting and focusing so we can see crisply and accurately.

 It has a seamless integration with our brain to allow images to be translated into information we can understand. This requires a complicated system of photo-chemical receptors, electrical signals, specialized cells and more all working harmoniously.

The six muscles attached to the eyes allow for large movements of the eye but also for small imperceptible tremors that shift your eyeball ever so slightly in a fraction of a second, without any effort on your part to allow for accurate focus.

The lens of the eye focus the image on the retina which lines the back of the eye. Special muscles make the lens thicker or thinner to focus an image. Specialized cells in the retina (rods and cones) allow us to see the image in various light levels, and in color.

The eyes have its own windshield wipers (the eyelids) and wiper fluid(tears) which keep the eyes free of debris and clean. The eyelashes (which are not just for batting at someone to flirt), help keep that dust and debris from landing in the eye.

Sounds like someone thought of everything doesn’t it? Sounds like Someone wanted to make us perfectly and wonderfully. Sounds like Someone really cares about us.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add to that …Someone cared about us so much He sent His only begotten Son in the world to die for our sins (John 3:16) and make us blameless before God when we accept that Salvation. Sounds like our amazing God!

If you would like more detailed information on the eye, please visit these websites:

http://www.detectingdesign.com/humaneye.html  (This is a scholarly article detailing and rebutting in a respectful, scientific  manner the argument for the evolution of the eye)

http://www.creationmoments.com/content/micro-marvels-human-eye-0  A short simple look at some highlights of the eye, especially the complex retina

http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/am/v3/n3/seeing-eye  A short, interesting overview of the eye from a creation perspective.

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Milk, ambulances and One who provides

Twenty three weeks into what had already been a touch and go pregnancy with my first child, I suddenly went into labor. Apparently I had an “incomptetent cervix” –  man, you think they would have come up with a more non-judgemental name for it – but there you have it. My baby at 1lb had become too heavy for my body to hold in and was well on his way to being born and an almost certain death.

It is miraculous the doctor even caught it, as most of these conditions end in a sudden and unexpected pre-term birth with a baby too small to survive. I had just changed doctors a few weeks before. God had just given me the intuition that I needed someone else to be my caretaker.  I found myself on an ambulance heading to Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA. It was actually really cool to look out the back of the ambulance and see all the cars pulled over to the slow lane on the highway and realize I was the reason. Or actually, that my baby was. We had already decided to call him Isaac and I prayed he would in fact live to be the child of promise that the Biblical one was.

When we got to the hospital and I got pumped full of drugs,  someone tried to enroll me in a study for Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants should Isaac survive since we were at almost 24 weeks. It was overwhelming to say the least but I experienced a complete peace that passed understanding and a faith that was from God – it was certainly not my own. I informed the lady that I would not be enrolling in the study as my baby was NOT going to be born early.

I also got a visit from a Neonatologist. She gently explained to me what could possibly happen should this baby come at 23-24 weeks. Here’s the thing that stood out to me in the midst of it all though. I still remember asking her if I would be able to produce milk since my body wasn’t at full term. She smiled – happy to give me some positive news. She said, “Your body will absolutely produce milk. In fact the milk will be different  than if you had gone full term. It will be specially suited for digestion for babies that have immature intestines.

 Do y’all get that!! My body was prepared to specially nurture this child!

Does this sound like something that random changes to DNA could have produced? To plan ahead for an event that hadn’t happened. For a child that would not in any way strengthen the gene pool as one of the fittest? No it couldnt, but my God who loves us and cares for the weak made a way. He made a path to help my 1lb baby to survive should he come early.

Here’s a quote from http://www.lactationconsultant.info/preterm.html 

It appears that there is an unknown biological mechanism in mothers who deliver prematurely that increases the concentration of anti microbial agents (sIgA, Lactoferrin and lysozyme), anti-inflammatory factors and immuno modulators. (Goldman et al 495, 498) These immunological components are vitally important for the VLBW infant to prevent nosocomial infections, sepsis, Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC), bacterial and viral infections.

And

Human milk feeding, even in small quantities, for the very low birth weight (VLBW) infants, provides benefits that we are only beginning to understand. Preterm mothers' milk contains amino acids and fat blends that aid physical growth. Breastmilk components have overlapping or interdependent functions. The fat globules in preterm milk are smaller thus aiding in their absorption directly from the immature gut. 

I could tell them what that unknown mechanism was: His name is Jehovah  Jireh – God who provides.  (Remember that childhood chorus?  “My God shall supply all my needs, according to His riches in glory. He gives His angels charge over me. Jehovah Jireh cares for me…Jehovah Jireh cares for me”).

Anyway, to make a long story short, after 16 weeks of complete bedrest…my sweet boy was born on his due date. Forty weeks to the day.  My sweet miracle boy.  My child of promise. My one of millions of reminders that God is in charge…He made us and He cares for us.

When Abraham was provided a replacement ram for his son Isaac he must have felt similar joy to what I feel as I write this.

"And Abraham calleth the name of that place 'Jehovah-Jireh,' because it is said this day in the mount, 'Jehovah doth provide'" 

Gen 22:14