Miracle Bugs

Job 15:8
“Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?”

God designed and made the universe from nothing. That’s creation. Man takes what God has made and simply rearranges it to make things that help him. That’s building. The wonderful abilities that God built into plants and animals come from the genetic information that God built into them. Man has now started to use the genetic information created by God to build harmless creatures that better serve our needs.

For example, the silk of the golden orb spider is five times stronger than steel, yet more elastic than any similar material we could manufacture. It could be used to make light and comfortable bulletproof vests and helmets. The problem is, it takes over half a million spiders to make a pound of silk. So scientists have taken the spider gene that makes the silk and put it into a harmless bacterium. When that bacterium divides, it makes more bacteria, complete with the gene. Today there are millions of bacteria making usable amounts of spider silk.

This technology has resulted in what has been called the greatest revolution since industrialization. Bacteria are now making insulin, vaccines and even chocolate. Today, bacteria are mainly used to manufacture medicines.

Man has learned a great deal about how to make use of the creation. However, the genetic information that makes this all possible in the first place is a product of the genius of our Creator.

Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, I thank You that You have given us the ability to learn how to make productive use of what You have created. I pray that man will not misuse this technology. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Doug Stewart. “These Germs Work Wonders.” Readers Digest, pp. 83-86. Photo: A cape made from Madagascar Golden Orb spider silk exhibited at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in June 2012. Courtesy of Cmglee. Licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.