Spiritual Lessons from Biology

Angalifu, the Northern White Rhinoceros, has just died at the Wild Safari park in San Diego.   i am stunned; not only because i grew up in San Diego and had seen the animal as a child, but because his death brings the species one step closer to extinction.   There are now only 5 individuals left on the planet.   There is essentially no hope of saving the species, though genetic material has been preserved with the hopes of someday reviving the majestic race. Later that evening as I sat quietly by myself, I reflected on all my memories of the rhinoceros from my time living in Tanzania.   I thought of sun-baked backs at Serengeti, of black eyes peeping shyly from jungles in Manyara, of horns like towers breaking up through Ngorogoro mists at dawn.   There are only two types of white rhino, and one of them will surely disappear by the time my life is over.   The black rhinoceros is certainly on the brink of extinction as well.   Will my child...

While i was living in Wellington, NZ, i'd often walk down to the harbor after work.  It was hard working 30 hours per week as a maid in the hotel, on top of the rigorous field research i was doing for my Master's degree in conservation biology.  But there beside the glittering harbor with the crying gulls and the lonely chink-chink of rocking ships nestled in their ports, i could forget my worries. On a particularly gray and blustery day i walked out onto the stone pier to watch the white caps moving across the seawater.  i stood in the cold and the howling din, drinking in the stormy scenery.  Suddenly a great explosion of mist plumed up from the water just beside me!  i leapt out of my skin!  There a massive orca appeared from the blackness, just for a moment, and disappeared again.  A dozen dorsal fins rose up at once, cutting through the wrinkled mirror of the water like black knives.  They changed course and made for something s...

It’s hard to imagine a single cell.   It’s harder still to imagine the intricate workings inside of a cell.   We have observed the behavior or red blood cells stacking up on each other like a row of dimes.  How do they do this?!  They don't have a nucleus, which means there is no 'brain' to guide it.  We have observed platelets budding off of each other when the blood stream couldn't make any more... a feat we once considered impossible.  How can a cell with no genetic material make another cell?!  What mysterious tiny treasures.  i  like to think of cells as spherical, floating cities.   Imagine the city you live in.   Think of all the moving pieces inside the city: cars, buses, trains, people walking, letters moving, trucks carrying materials…Wrap it in a giant membrane-ball.   A single cell is more complex than this. i get frustrated when people tell me that your genes determine who you are.  If there is on...

When i stand beneath the humming umbrage of a forest, my soul is at once quickened and calmed.  The green glow invigorates me, and the hush of leaves soothes my mind.  Sometimes, when life is busy or fate has been unkind, i hike up into the forest by myself.  In the heavy atmosphere, in the air tempered with the damp scent of moss, i am home. The Bible describes a steadfast human psyche as a tree.   Jeremiah 17 warns against an inappropriate dependence on people in circumstances when we must depend only on God.   Our dependence on people leaves us feeling dry and empty, "like a shrub in the desert".  They cannot satisfy us; they cannot give us what we truly want.  We were made for a deep, soulful love, not the fragments of a broken human heart, even if that heart is given wholly and willingly.  i  still find this concept difficult, being quite a gregarious creature myself.   Some of the sweetest times i have experienced i...

There is a silent killer in the animal kingdom.   This killer is not even born yet.   It is an egg, small and innocent, sitting in a nest.   But when it hatches—and it will hatch before the others—it will spell death for the other chicks.   This is a cuckoo bird—an avian parasite.   It feeds off of the maternal bond of she who bore its victims.   The mother, believing the chick is her own, will continue to feed it until it outgrows the nest, until it kills her own young right in front of her.   Many times, the cuckoo ends up being much larger than the supposed ‘mother’, yet she never notices the oddity as the urge to care for the chick is so strong. There is another bird living in cuckoo territory, but this bird is a group-nester.   It is called the Masked Weaver.   These weavers keep an eye out for each other, in some cases even helping to build each other’s nests and clean up after each other.   These birds have developed a...

i am no stranger to the mountains.   When i am back at my home base in Colorado i  try to hike in the Rockies once per week.   Even though i have been in this region on and off since the age of 6, i am constantly amazed at how many new plants and animals i encounter on my explorations.   One day I was hiking with my dear friend Bekah.   i  lost her along the trail and turned back to see where she’d gone.   There she was, crouched down by the grass, taking a picture of something.   I approached slowly, trying to not scare away whatever she'd found.   Here is what we saw: A Rainbow Grasshopper!   Those extravagant colors were a secret gem in a world of brown and green.   It looked as if a miniaturist had painted it.  i had no idea such a beautiful grasshopper existed, let alone lived in Colorado.   We both crouched in the grass, watching it, in stunned silence.   I was reminded that day of how much God ca...

Spix Disc-Winged Bats are always on the move.   By anatomical comparison with morphologically similar species, we can calculated that their heart rate in flight is likely about 1,000 BPM (beats per minute) and at rest is likely 400 BPM!   Not only do they move a lot physically, but they differ from other bats in that they make a new roost every day (they’re nocturnal).   By using suction cups on their wrists, Spixies climb up newly forming leaves and suction-cup themselves to the inside to sleep.   They stay in family units of 5 or 6, bundling together in the tube-like leaf to sleep the day away. I wonder what it would be like to never know where your next meal would be?   Or where you’d be sleeping at the end of the day?    In Philippians 4v12, Paul writes, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living...

In the Sahara, the sun rules all.  No creature can survive its full heat, which averages 104ºF.  Yet the unlikeliest of creatures, an ant, has a trick up its sleeve.  The Saharan Silver ant is the only animal in this ecosystem capable of withstanding the heat of day at high noon.  Their peculiar armor, much like a space suit, is the cause.  These ants are silver-colored, and their dainty panoply of mirrors reflects sunlight.  Thus when their last predators hide away in the ground to hide from the extreme heat, the Saharan Silver ants scurry out to gather their daily food.  Their shimmering bodies have only minutes before the sun burns through them.  They march out quickly, locating food and working together to bring it back to the nest.  After 10 minutes, the last ants are either back in their burrow or crippled by heatstroke. 
The Saharan Silver Ant is a remarkable creature.  When I ponder these brave little a...