Opus 2016-72: God Is My Macrophage

Years ago I taught science.  I learned a lot the first few years as I kept one step ahead of the students.  One of the specialized defenses of the human body that I came across was the macrophage.  It is a compound word meaning “big eater”.  A macrophage is a specialized white blood cell that is designed to have a voracious appetite and kills itself overeating the invaders attacking the body.  Of course it is more complex than that but for middle school students that is enough.

So my brain goes into tangent mode.  I start thinking about the stresses and conflicts that are eating away at my mental and spiritual health.  Sometimes I marvel that I am able to get through a day without someone dialing 911 to have me committed.  In spite of that I think I am stable and productive.  I still have a load of marbles, but they say you are the last one to know when your mind goes.

It occurred to me that the Holy Spirit is acting like a macrophage in my life.  He attacks the evil and sickness.  He consumes the spiritual cancers that want to rage through my attitudes.  He neutralizes the toxins that eat away at my joy.  In reviewing on Wikipedia the information on the macrophage I was interested to find that sometimes it causes inflamation and other times reduces it, depending on what the body needs.  So typical of how God works in or lives.  There are times when stress makes us stronger and times it drains.  Only God knows how to ration it out.

There are so many parallels between the spiritual and the physical you might get the idea that the same God designed both.

homo unius libri