The Mystery of Being Human

A group of geography students were begriming a segment on the Seven Wonders of the World. They students were asked to list what they considered to be the Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the following got the most votes: Egypt’s Great Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building, St. Peter’s Basilica and China’s Great Wall.

While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one student hadn’t turned in her paper yet. So the teacher asked if she was having trouble with her list. The girl replied, “Yes, a little. I can’t quite make up my mind because there are so many.”

The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.” The girl hesitated then read, “I think the Seven Wonders of the World are to touch and to taste, to see and to hear…”  She hesitated a little and continued, “to run and to laugh and to love.”

Og Mandino, in chapter nine of the Greatest Miracle in the world noted that right now as you are reading this, millions of sensors in your eyes translate the written words into things comprehended by your brain.

As you sit here, notice your heart beating, touch your chest and feel its rhythm.  Close your eyes and feel its gentle steady beat, day in day out year after year, thirty six million beats per year pumping your blood through thousands of miles of veins, arteries and capillaries, nourishing every cell of your body, pumping more than six hundred thousand gallons a year. No human invention can compare to this masterpiece of the body.

The five pints of blood that course through your body contain twenty-two trillion cells.  Each second millions of cells die and millions more are born in a pattern that began the day you were born.

Your blood is comprised of a delicate balance of cells, each with a different purpose, and together they keep your body nourished with oxygen and nutrients and carry away wastes that are processed by the body through a complex, delicate and incredibly durable system that is like none other. 

Without thinking about it your lungs take in air, distill oxygen from it and pass it to the blood. What is left over is exhaled. This happens day in day out over seven million times each year.

Your three pound brain is the most complex system in the universe.  Billions of cells capture every taste, sight, sound and perception.  In the midst of it all there is the gift of memory, the ability to recall a face, a word, a sunset and the cornucopia of fall color on a hillside.

Look at your hands; 27 bones surrounded by a series of muscles and ligaments and nerves. Covered with skin, which is an amazing and durable thing; your hands move on command of the brain.  Hands do everything from transporting food, creating music, performing the most delicate of tasks to wrapping themselves around the hand of someone we love.  When was the last time you pondered your hands?

We have the capacity to taste and savor what enters our mouths: fresh baked bread, the sweetness of a ripe apple, the satisfaction of a hearty soup on a cold day.  Our lips meet the lips of one we love and we are connected in a way that goes beyond words.

This same three pound brain works with the rest of our being to give and receive love, open ourselves to another, risk and to pray, feel and know.  We are body, mind, soul and spirit bearing the image of the Divine.

And we don’t think all that much about it.  When’s the last time you sat down and pondered your body as a truly holy creation.  I remember going to a directed spiritual retreat many years ago and the director invited us to ponder our feet. I thought she was a half-a- bubble off plumb to be honest.  But dutifully I removed my shoes and socks and went off to ponder my naked feet for a full thirty minutes.  It was pretty amazing.

Mostly when we think about our bodies we concentrate on things like height, weight and hair style. We are too much of this and not enough of that. A survey of adults between the ages of 30 and 59 showed that less than 10% of women and men were content with their body. Each year adults spend thirty three billion dollars on weight control products.

As we grow older things hurt that didn’t use to hurt: stamina decreases; ears, eyes and mind aren’t as sharp as they used to be.  And let’s not even think about gravity.  We are as apt to denigrate ourselves as the youth worshipping culture in which we live.

From time to time it’s a good thing to sit in the miracle that is our human body. It is not about being perfect. It is about being fully human and transparent before God in our beauty and our brokenness.  When we stand without shame in that truth, transparent before our maker, we are both fully human and fully alive.  It is the greatest gift we can know.  It is the root of intimacy with God and with one another. It is the mystery of being human.