IT’S WHAT’S NOT SAID THAT’S AMAZING (5/17/09-5/23/09)

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL FOR THE WEEK OF MAY 17-23, 2009

IT’S WHAT’S NOT SAID THAT’S AMAZING

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  Genesis 2:7

As a teenager, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia as a senior in high school.  I had chemotherapy and maintenance chemo for over a year.  About 10 months later, I was diagnosed with relapsing into ALL.  The only chance that I had now was having a bone marrow transplant.

I went to a university hospital in Virginia, where I would get chemo, full body radiation, and an autologous bone marrow transplant.  They were explaining how they would havest a liter of my own marrow, wash it and put it back in my body.  The harvest would be done as an inpatient surgery, going into each hip 25 times to get enough marrow to use.  The heavy chemotherapy and full body radiation was designed to suppress all the marrow in my body and kill off the blood cells in my blood, all of which would radically rid my body of the leukemia.

The nurse then explained that they would put the marrow in my body.  I thought that since they took it out by surgery, they would need to put it back in using surgery.  But this concerned me because I would have no white blood cells to fight potential infection from surgery, nor would there be any platelets to clot my blood.  I mentioned my concern to the nurse about having surgery when I would be in so much danger.

“What surgery,” was her response?  I expained my assumptions about receiving the transplant.  She smiled at me and said that the marrow would go in through an IV.  “Though an IV?  Into my blood?  What good does that do?  It belongs in my bones!”  The nurse explained that once the marrow got into my blood system, the cells would know exactly where to go and graft right in.

I was stunned and amazed.  My first thought was Genesis 2:7, which says “God formed man. . .”  Yes, it is amazing that God just reached down to grab some dirt, blew on it, and man became a living soul.  But it is what is not explained in those three words that is amazing!  God designed our bodies in such a way that some 6,000 or so years later I could have a bone marrow transplant!

The body is an amazing structure.  Consider the eye, and the miracle of its intricate workings and delicate functions.  Meditate on the nervous system, that not only delivers impulses to the brain for us to see, but also allows us to hear, feel, taste and move our bodies.  Study the heart and the circulatory system that picks up oxygen and nutrients to help our cells stay alive and then gets the waste to dispose.  Not to mention the clotting and infection fighting properties that it provides.

David said, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works.”

While these words truly do say a lot, it’s what’s not said that’s amazing!