Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Planarians and the Glory of God

Tonight Katie and I were in the car trying to get some reading done while the guys were at baseball practice. Katie was reading her Biology; I was reading When I Don't Desire God, How to Fight for Joy, by John Piper. (It's a book recommended by our youth pastor for the youth ministry leaders.)
She started talking about the planarians, the topic of the day in her book, and I laughed and read a sentence from my book. "Therefore the final goal in our hearts is the enjoyment of the glory of God, not just the seeing."
With a laugh she read a sentence from hers. "Planarians usually eat small organisms they grab with their mouth."
"And the final goal in the universe is the fullest possible display of the glory of God."
"Digestive enzymes are then secreted through the mouth, and, after the organism is broken down into small particles, a tubelike pharynx is extended out of the mouth, sucking up the small particles."
"That fullness comes to pass not only but mainly through the white-hot, joy-permeated worship of His people as they exult in the glory of His Son."
Well, we thought that was pretty funny. I could go on (we did for a bit) but you get the picture. We get our focus on the things of this world, and look what we get to focus on! Planarians' eating habits and things not much prettier. Focusing on the glory of God is always preferable, but it's not primary to our human nature.
How I wish I could manage to go through life joyfully, consistently, keeping my eyes off of the feeding habits of planarians and their ilk but looking to God instead! Still, uh...what do those creatures do? Uh...how do they do it? Hmm. Yeah, that's the human condition, pondering the equivalent of planarians...day after day...wonder how beneficial studying Biology really is? Don't tell Katie that's even a question.

1 comment:

Leila said...

Connie, I always learn such...intersting things from your and Katie's blogs. :) I love that book (Piper, not Biology) - I lent it to one of my students and it, along with all his snowboarding equipment, were stolen out of another student's car. Perhaps God will use it unto the thief's salvation...