Growing Backbone

Job 38:3b
“…for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.”

Modern medicine has increasingly returned to study how nature accomplishes medical miracles to bring the benefits of what they learn to mankind. Man has dreamed for thousands of years of being able to restore a severed spinal cord. Once the nerves running inside our backbones are severed, we permanently lose the use of our limbs below the point of damage.

Medical researchers have learned that the black ghost knifefish, native to South America, is actually able to re-grow its backbone if it is severed. The black ghost knifefish can even re-grow the spinal cord within the backbone and the supporting muscle structure!

What’s more, scientists have identified the layer of cells responsible for this re-growth. And the best news is that human beings also have the same layer of cells. Unfortunately, the layer becomes dormant by the time we reach adulthood. Researchers are currently trying to learn how that layer of cells, with its wonderful abilities, might be stimulated back into action if needed to repair a severed spinal cord.

This shows us that when we Christians talk about the clear evidence of God’s intelligence in the universe, we are not engaging in wishful thinking. Even our best medical researchers recognize the intelligence with which the creation is made and desire to learn from that intelligence!

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I thank You that we can learn and benefit from studying how You designed things to work. But help me to never forget that Your most important work was my salvation through Jesus Christ. In His Name. Amen.

Notes:
Regrowth of Spinal Cord Studied. Feb. 19, 1989. Photo: Black ghost knifefish. Courtesy of Derek Ramsey. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.