Some words from Psalm 139 have taken on more and more meaning for me over the years: “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made!”  I’ve occasionally joked that while I know I am fearfully and wonderfully made, at my stage of life the emphasis falls on the ‘fearfully’ rather than on the ‘wonderfully’.  I’m not too alarmed about that.  For one thing, I’m helping to keep my medical professionals employed!  More importantly, this ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ body rests in the hands of my loving heavenly Father.

Recently something about the human body piqued my curiosity and made me think again of those words from Psalm 139.  I indulged in some research – courtesy of Mr Google – and concluded that the words of King David about being “fearfully and wonderfully made” are actually a massive understatement.

What got me going was reading about the Laminin molecule.  But first a disclaimer: I’m not a biologist, so forgive me if don’t get things quite precise technically.

Laminin is a protein molecule discovered in 1979 by Rupert Timpl.  There are apparently 15 variations of this molecule found in all living creatures.  Twelve varieties are found in human beings.  Laminin is called an adhesion molecule.  It serves to bind together other molecules and cells.  The binding properties of Laminin has led to the claim that this molecule forms the connective tissue that holds us together.  Its binding properties make it important for the growth of cells.  For this reason Laminin is found in almost every bodily organ.  It plays an important role in your skin, joints, tendons and ligaments, as well as in your blood vessels and muscles.  One variant is found in bone marrow where the blood cells are formed.  It also plays a key role in the development of the nervous system.  One scientific website describes Laminin as “an integral part of the structural scaffolding of basement membranes in almost every creature.”  People lacking Laminin in their bodies may suffer from things like kidney disease, muscular dystrophy or skin lesions.

What was it that King David said again, about being fearfully and wonderfully made?  How does the atheistic evolutionist explain Laminin?  Did this molecule occur totally by chance in the primordial swamps in which life is supposed to have originated?  King David knew better.  He praised God, the designer and creator of life, by whom we were fearfully and wonderfully made – and David had no inkling of such a molecule as Laminin that literally holds us together.

So for me Laminin is another reminder that we have an awesome Creator God... and if it is indeed our great and glorious God who holds all things together then we have in Laminin another example of His fingerprints left in creation.

However another thing is interesting about Laminin.  With the development of electron microscopes we could actually look at the Laminin molecule for the first time.  What’s fascinating is that in the early 1980s the first pictures of Laminin showed that this molecule is roughly in the shape of a cross.  Diagrammatically it is certainly pictured as cross-shaped.

That resonates with Christians.  Think about it!  In the Bible the Church of Jesus is compared to a body.  Paul speaks about that in several of his letters.  In Ephesians chapter 5 he talks about the way the body (the church) matures.  Very tellingly the Apostle points out that it is Christ, the head of the church, who binds all of his people (the cells) together.  “From him (Christ) the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”  The saving work of Jesus on the cross unites Christian believers from all kinds of backgrounds.  We, the Body of Christ, find our unity in the cross... and now we know that a roughly cross-shaped molecule is foundational to the structure of the human body.

And it doesn’t end there.  The saving work of Jesus is not just to bless individual human beings.  Christ’s redemptive work on the cross of Calvary has cosmic dimensions.  Now creation itself will be restored at His return.  In another profound statement in his letter to the Colossians Paul makes a statement in which he almost seems to be thinking of the Laminin molecule.  “He (Christ) is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  What an amazing statement.  Our crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ is the One who holds the universe together.

John Westendorp