Wonderfully Created
In His Image
by Dr Ang Chin Sim
Discovery of another world
When people ask me why I chose to study medicine, various contributing and inspiring factors come to mind. One memory I recall quite vividly while in my early teens was the first time I peered into a microscope. I had cut a thin sliver of onion and placed it under the microscope. Lo and behold, another world greeted me. Brick-like elongated cells with well-defined cell walls, each containing a large and circular nucleus, looked simply amazing! The wondrous sight is still etched in my memory to this day, and the study of the human body still fascinates me!
The microscopic view
Many years later, I find myself still making use of microscopes. This time it’s mainly related to the human eye. The eye is a product of specialised cells, with the eyes taking up a mere 1% of the weight of the head. For eye examination (as it is a small organ), modern-day ophthalmologists (eye doctors) are blessed to have microscopes in their armamentarium, enabling detection of the slightest changes that occur in the human eye, even to the point of seeing a single cell floating gracefully in the liquid currents of the eye!
In contrast, ancient doctors could only see the eye from the front external structures. With what knowledge the ancients had, the treatment for cataracts was to simply poke a sharp instrument directly into the eye to dislodge the lens without considering the possibility of infection or damaging other vital structures in the eye.
Since then, there have been tremendous advances in how modern-day cataract surgery is performed. A surgeon uses a sophisticated microscope that reveals the minute layers of the eye, taking care to work within a 2-3mm space to avoid damaging thin, delicate structures that lie above and below the lens, kind of like dodging minefields in a delicate and precise manner. This is followed by implanting an intraocular lens, for which many detailed calculations have been done to obtain the best fit power for the patient. Sterility of the modern-day operation is deemed very important too, to avoid tiny microscopic bacteria wreaking havoc postoperatively.
Diversity
Looking at cellular structures makes me appreciate how God made us so intricately and, more so, diversely. He planned the function and design of each cell. How amazing that God chose to custom make each of us and not make compliant factory robot creatures. God is the Master coder! He put our code in our DNA that tells each cell how it is to function. Three billion letters of DNA contain instructions that would fill three hundred books of a thousand pages long if printed in a tiny font. Many different types of cells make up the human body – bone cells, fat cells, blood cells and muscle cells, to mention a few. Even in the eye, there are many specialised cells. When we look at something, we are viewing it with 127 million visual cells. Rods and cones are lined up in rows, rods allowing us to see shades of grey, with cones giving us high definition resolution and filling our senses with more than a million unique colours. The cornea has five layers, and each functions with a different purpose. The lens also contains other cells within its structure. The clear lens and cornea allow light transmission to hit the rods and cones from which electrical impulses fire messages into the brain, and voilà! We see! What is so amazing is that it seems so effortless, all this coding and decoding, a myriad of processes in microseconds. Yet, we seem so unconscious of all this activity, done by the concerted action and reaction of diverse cells of our body.
The diversity of cells teaches us about more prominent organisations, e.g. families, groups, communities, nations. The human body contains a zoo of cells, none of which resembles the gross appearance of the larger body; in the same way, the spiritual body of Christ comprises a mishmash of believers. Look at the different races of people, different personalities and quirks. As colours in a portrait may be beautiful as single colours, it’s the Artist’s arrangement of strokes of colours that contrast at times and, in other times, blend in complementary hues that provides the richness and texture of a complete work of art.
Any basis for unity in our community does not find its strength in emphasising our similarities but celebrating our diversity. Then we can be knit and woven into an astounding, marvellously designed tapestry. The body needs its diverse cells to function to thrive. We need to learn that acting as an individual cell amounts to little, but when working in concert with other cells, the body can function in the tremendous way God created it to do so. Therefore acknowledging the value of every member in the body of Christ and functioning as a whole body, diverse yet unified, is what God intended in His marvellous plan.
Unity
Surgical teamwork is an example of unity. To perform a surgical procedure that is well-executed, we need teamwork. Some prepare and sterilise the instruments, runners who scurry back and forth for needed instruments, surgical assistants and the surgeon. Those who do the humble work of cleaning and packing away instruments are also very important in the chain of teamwork, all working to a common goal of caring for the patient. When one link in the chain is broken, the whole surgery can be compromised. I am privileged to experience excellent teamwork regularly. Recognising one another’s role in the ultimate goal of performing the best surgery possible becomes a smooth process where no single role is more important than another. Still, all roles are needed for the machinery to roll on smoothly.
Modern-day thinking is often individualised, fighting for our rights to be independent and comfortable. One example is how this COVID-19 pandemic has still not been overcome, with waves upon waves still hitting many countries. There are generally selfish people who believe that it’s their right not to wear a mask, it’s their right to defy quarantining orders, it’s their right to gather and visit as they please. If only we sacrificed our rights to fully squash the virus into total oblivion by cooperating as a community, things could have been better.
As members of a spiritual Body, we are challenged to give up self-importance and to have a newborn again DNA. In a healthy church community, we live in diversity under the roof of unity. In the process of joining the body of Christ, each individual has to forfeit their autonomy and have the ultimate goal of pleasing and obeying God. This enables us to work in synergy with others in the body to achieve God’s divine purpose in the entirety.
Being in a spiritual body with Christ as the head may involve sacrifice, but this opens up personal fulfilment and gratification levels, way more than we can envisage on our own. While modern-day philosophies worship self-autonomy, self-enrichment, self-boasting, the paradox of the Christian life is that in losing my life, then will I truly find it. By being a living sacrifice for the greater good of the Body, will I truly live an abundant life with Christ as the Head?
“We will grow to become the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:15-16).”
Life-blood
Under the microscope, it’s possible to visualise blood flowing through vessels, especially just underneath the conjunctiva, a transparent covering of the eye. In surgery, there is bound to be some bleeding when we impinge on the blood vessels. As much as some people hate the sight of blood, it’s a vital substance surging through our vessels, proof that we are alive! A pale, anaemic living person is often tired and weak. If the haemoglobin level in that anaemic person drops too low, a transfusion of blood is required. An amazing thing happens as the blood transfusion progresses, pale lips become pink, colour comes back into the skin, and energy begins to flood in. Blood flows through our pipelines, servicing forty trillion cells in the human body. Blood gives a renewable supply of essential oxygen, salts and minerals, sugars, lipids and hormones. At the same time, the pipeline carries away waste substances, carbon dioxide and other toxins. It’s such a well-oiled system, as it’s so phenomenally made.
Our Christian faith is inescapably blood-based. The Old Testament talks about animal sacrifices that must be performed for the atonement of sins. The animal sacrifices were not a pretty sight, a bloody mess, so to speak, performed in the courtyard of the tabernacle. Deep in the bible lies the fundamental association of blood with life.
In a covenant with Noah, God commanded, “You must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it” (Genesis 9:4). Why? “Because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat” (Leviticus 3:17; 7:26-27; 17:11, 14; Deuteronomy 12:23).
In contrast to the above, when Jesus came, he proclaimed, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them on the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” (John 6:53-57)
It sounds pretty cannibalistic, and I admittedly have difficulty explaining it to the uninitiated. An excerpt from Dr. Paul Brand’s book “Fearfully and Wonderfully” explains, “Jesus spoke as he did, not to offend but rather to effect a radical transformation in the symbol. God had said to Noah if you drink the blood of a lamb, the life of the lamb enters you—don’t do it. Jesus said, in effect if you drink my blood, my life will enter you—do it! For this reason, I believe Jesus intended our holy communion ceremony to include remembrance of his past death and a realisation of his present life. We cannot sustain a spiritual life without the nourishment His life provides. Christ came not just to give us an example of a way of life but to give us life itself. Spiritual life is not ethereal and outside us, something that we must work hard to obtain; it is in us, pervading us, like the blood that flows through every living body.”
Thus for us to be born again is to undergo a spiritual blood transfusion, that is, the precious blood of Christ, cleansing us from sin and nourishing us with abundant life.
Humankind, God and the Macroscopic view
While a microscopic view enables us to see the tiny details, a macroscopic view enables us to get the larger perspective. It’s possible to get caught up in the fine details and not see the bigger picture. God not only knows the details of our lives, but He is entirely in charge of the bigger picture, the redemption plan was in place even before time began and sin came into our world.
Jesus became the perfect sacrificial Lamb for us. The animal sacrifices described in the Old Testament had to be repeated time and time again for the atonement of sin. This was foreshadowing what Jesus would fulfil in a once and for all perfect sacrifice. His blood has the power to redeem the world fallen into sin. Into a world full of unique and diverse beings that He created, He came to experience life as one of us and become the Sacrifice for us all. The life-transforming blood enables us, as diverse unique individuals, to find unity under the headship of Christ.
Ephesians 1:7-10 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Every day, I am so touched by how wonderfully God made us, not only creating us but having a purposeful plan for humankind, and that He has united us through redemptive life-blood.
“Diversity finds unity by redemption through His blood!”
About Dr Ang Chin Sim
Dr Ang Chin Sim is a senior Consultant Ophthalmologist. She grew up reading Asian Beacon. She spent her undergraduate years in Australia and served in Overseas Christian Fellowship, Adelaide.
After completing her medical degree, she went on to specialise in Ophthalmology, obtaining FRCS (Edinburgh) and M. Med. Ophthalmology (NUS). She is privileged to witness God’s handiwork on a daily basis and dabbles in poetry, music, dance and writing.
