Friends, I’m inviting you to join me on an unresolved quest in today’s odd column. I’ll conclude with a story about former Montana Governor Judy Martz.
Using the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI), Google’s DeepVariant builds an accurate picture of each person’s distinct genome. “Now, our ability to measure our biology far surpasses our ability to understand it. AI is the only technology we have for interpreting and acting on these vast amounts of data. This is going to completely change the future of medicine” (Frey, CEO, Deep Genomics). Remarkable – personalized, precision medicine.
Still, however much technology empowers us, we have more. Reader, my life experience and Bible reading have stretched my frame of reference regarding our bodies. May I return the favor?
Considering our hearts
Many years ago, I helped a family when their 16-year-old committed suicide. As the years passed, his parents became involved with organ donor families and recipients. They invited me to attend one meeting.
Before he was born, the speaker – in his 50’s – had a seriously damaged heart. As a result, he qualified for a new heart – the heart of an 18-year-old woman. What fresh energy! After surgery, he requested a cup of coffee. Previously, he’d never been a coffee drinker. But his donor loved coffee! His new heart changed his tastes. What?!
According to some research, the heart sends more messages to the brain than the brain to the heart. Curious!
Enlarging our understanding
When David wrote: “My heart trusts in the LORD” (Ps. 28:7), did he mean his heart had some capacity to trust? Did he write truly for himself and us – not, as some might say, like one from an unenlightened pre-scientific age when people sentimentalized parts of our body?
David writes: “Thank you for making me so ‘wonderfully’ complex (literally, “I stand in awe” – at the unique personal intricacy of God’s creation)! Your workmanship is marvelous (difficult/intricate work, successfully accomplished). You watched me as I was being ‘formed in utter seclusion’ (literally: “You created my kidneys”), as I was woven together in the dark of the womb — how well I know it” (Psalm 139:13,14).
When David writes: “How well I know it,” we wonder: because David spoke by the Spirit of God, did he write more truly about our hearts, kidneys, and bodies than we know? We can assume superiority over previous generations because of our advances in technology. The gender revolution shows we can give more credence to our thoughts/feelings than to physical reality. But have we missed the sophistication of God’s creation reflected in the Scripture?
Hearts again
Hebrews used the word “heart” to describe the core of a person’s identity. We limit the heart to being the source of love, affection, or emotion. However, David begins Ps.139 with, “O LORD, you have searched me, and you know me.” He concludes, “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (v 23). “Me” and “my heart” are synonymous.
Sometimes, our translators have tried to address the difference in Hebrew understanding and our culture’s apprehension by changing the translation. They are attempting “dynamic equivalence.” For example, translators make these substitutions for “heart” in Proverbs:
- “He who commits adultery lacks ‘sense’ (‘heart’)” (6:32);
- “You who are foolish gain ‘understanding’ (‘heart’)” (8:5);
- “A man who lacks ‘judgment’ (‘heart’) derides his neighbor” (11:12).
Reader, do these translations help your understanding or hinder it?
Kidneys
And what about our kidneys? Again, we find translators squeamish about calling our kidneys – kidneys.
- A father tells his child: “My’ inmost being’ (‘kidneys’) will exult when your lips speak what is right” (Prov 23:16).
- “Why does the way of the wicked prosper? You are near their mouth and far from their ‘heart’ (‘kidneys’). O LORD, you see me and test my ‘thoughts’ (‘heart’) about you” (Jer. 12:1-3).
- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and test the ‘mind’ (‘kidneys’) to give every man according to his ways” (Jer 17:9,10).
More – Flesh/Body
In his Pentecost sermon, Peter quotes David: “My body also will live in hope” (Ps. 16:9, Acts 2:26).
Friend, we are left with this question: “Has God imbued our bodies with hope capacitors?” Perhaps. Somehow, David and Peter tell us our bodies hope. However, they do not say our minds, our hearts, or our kidneys hope on behalf of our bodies.
God made us fearfully and wonderfully – more than we know.
Renewed Wonder and Relationship
God treats our bodies with profound care. In creation (all made from nothing!), the incarnation (God made man!) – the redemption of many (rebels made righteous!), and the coming consummation (heaven made ours) – our bodies are significant. God’s grand work embraces our bodies.
Let’s respond with David: “I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night, also my ‘heart’ (‘kidneys’) instructs me” (Ps 16:7). Do kidneys teach?
David’s words reminded me of our former Governor, Judy Martz. Last March, a physically diminished but personally vibrant Judy spoke at a prayer breakfast in Helena. Later, I saw her at Costco. She and her sister, Penny, were having hot dogs. They waved me over.
As we talked, I asked Judy about the pain of her pancreatic cancer – diagnosed 11/11/2014. She told me her pain mainly came at night: “That way, the pain is between God and me.” I was astonished at her gracious words! So, friend, I pass them on to you.
Question: Had her pancreas – near her kidneys – instructed her?
And, what a battler – Judy lived longer than many who face this foe. At 74, she died of the disease 10/30/17 in Butte.
Now, Judy declares with David and Peter: “‘I saw the Lord always before me…Therefore my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope…you will fill me with joy in your presence” (Acts 2:25 ff.).
Ponder David, Peter, and Judy’s remarkable affirmations. Perhaps you’d like to join them.
Note 1: 12/2021 note: Dr. Gwen Park, Westmont College Magazine, Fall, Vol. 40, #2, researches interactions between the brain and heart and how the cardiac vagal tone indicates how well the brain functions.
Note 2: 1/4/21 “In a 5/10/20 article (edited): “Mother’s Day Genetics: How long does a mother “carry” a child?” Katya Orlova writes:
“The genetic bond between Mother and child does not end at conception. Mom and baby share each other’s cells during pregnancy. Some of the baby’s cells become embedded in various organs and become a part of the parent. The fetus typically transfers more of their cells to the Mother than the other way around, and in some cases, for as long as decades after the birth of the baby.
“What happens to these fetal cells once they reach Mom’s body? Some studies show that fetal cells benefit Moms and help heal maternal wounds. The fetal cells in the Mother can also transform into cells needed by the Mother, including brain cells, heart cells…”
When I read “heart,” my brain screeched to a halt. So bear with me in this connection.
Our word, “courage,” comes from the word “heart” (“cour”). So, can a baby give her/his Mom “courage?” Perhaps!
Let me remind you of those who show real courage – real heart – by giving birth. When some see the only way “out” for them is abortion, when these Moms hear their baby’s heartbeat, some reconsider and choose to give birth. Why the change of mind/heart? Some Moms say: “The heartbeat really got to me.”
So, we wonder: “Does God do heart-work in the Mother through the cells of her baby embedding in her heart/mind and healing scars – even fears?” In Psalm 103:13, David informs us even Dads can have this “womblike” connection/compassion.
Friends, how will God give us the courage we need when we pray for courage? Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, it may be through a child – even a child in the womb.
