From Nanometers to Gigaparsecs

Nanotechnology is hot these days. This summer, I've been immersed in this fascinating area of science doing a research internship in Minneapolis. In nanotechnology, smaller is (almost) always better. My project is to fabricate a device containing nanochannels for DNA experiments. By definition, a nanochannel has two dimensions that are on the order of 100 nanometers.

How small is that?

Well, you could fit about a million nanochannels inside a single human hair!

This is a close-up of a strand of human hair. It doesn't really look like hair, but it is.

Nanotechnology is the science of small. Cosmology, on the other hand, is the science of big. Cosmologists investigate solar systems, galaxies, and even the entire universe and its origins. The observable diameter of the universe is about 28 gigaparsecs.

 Each gigaparsec contains a billion parsecs. I always thought a parsec was something George Lucas made up for Star Wars, but it's actually a real distance. Each parsec contains 31 trillion kilometers. Each kilometer contains a million millimeters. And each millimeter contains a million nanometers.

An artist's rendition of the universe. Because, of course, nobody can actually photograph the entire universe.

If you told me that you could fathom the difference in size between a nanochannel and the universe, I would call you a liar! Yet science spans this vast difference, crossing many orders of magnitude from the miniscule to the mammoth.

Can anything else span this difference? Or...anyone else? How about Christ?

Ephesians 3:18 tells us what the dimensions of Christ are. But Paul couldn't quite come up with the right numbers. All he came up with was "width, length, depth, and height." That's because Christ is literally immeasurable. Even the seemingly infinite universe can be made finite with units like gigaparsecs. You can't do that with Christ!

But what about Christ being small?

Fewer people consider this side of Christ. I had a tough time finding a verse reference saying that Christ could fit inside a nanochannel, but the thought of Christ being small still pervades the Bible.

In Matthew 15:25-28, a Gentile woman refers to the Lord as bread crumbs. He doesn't respond negatively, but instead commends her, saying, "Great is your faith." Bread crumbs are not measured in nanometers, but among foods, they are about as small and lowly as you can get.

In First Kings 19:11-12, a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire pass by Elijah, but God didn't exist in any of those things. Instead, he existed in a still small voice.

Finally, in Philippians 2:5-8, we see that Jesus Christ, the infinite God, chose to humble Himself to the lowest of humanity by taking the form of a servant and dying the death of a cross.

Praise our Lord who is so big and yet so small!

Puerto Rico or Yosemite?

It's almost been a week since I returned from a trip to Puerto Rico. Some of my friends on the trip have already posted about Puerto Rico and the beautiful places in Puerto Rico. The beauty of the island was absolutely stunning, especially the beaches. I love natural beauty. But is Puerto Rico the most beautiful place I have ever visited? After going through a mental checklist, I narrowed the choices down to Puerto Rico and Yosemite National Park in California. I couldn't make a decision between those two, so I'm going to leave it up to you all. Check out the pictures below and leave a comment answering the question:

Which is more beautiful?

Puerto Rico

Yosemite

The picture credits go to Joseph Hernandez, Chris Chan, Garrett Ghent, and myself.

The Bookends of the Bible (2)

(This is the second of two posts on the bookends of the Bible)

In my previous post on the bookends of the Bible, I discussed the dearth of Satan and sin, man having image and dominion, the tree of life, and the river. This time, I want to highlight two more crucial items that tie Genesis 1-2 together with Revelation 21-22, as well as the rest of the Bible.

The first item is the building. The second is the couple.

This is an unfinished building. Kind of like the church. Sorry, no pictures of the couple for now.

The building actually doesn't appear in the first two chapters of the Bible, but the building materials do. In the garden of Eden, there were three valuable building materials: gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (Genesis 2:12). In the New Jerusalem, there are once again three valuable building materials: gold, pearl, and twelve different kinds of precious stones (Revelation 21:18-21). Along the way, Paul also writes about three valuable building materials: gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3:12).

Through careful examination of these verses, you can see a progression. In Genesis, the building materials are scattered throughout the garden of Eden. In 1 Corinthians, the building materials are in the process of being built on the foundation of Christ. Finally, in Revelation, the building materials are fully built into the holy city, the New Jerusalem.

This building process seen throughout the Bible mirrors the building of the church. This desire was on God's heart from the beginning of time. The Lord Jesus promised to build His church in Matthew 16:18. But the building didn't really begin until the Lord had died and resurrected. Then, all the believers could participate with Paul in the building up of the church through their speaking (1 Corinthians 14:26). This building work is still being carried out today, and in the future the New Jerusalem will be the consummation of the building of the church.

But what about the couple in Genesis 2? Everyone has heard of Adam and Eve. Could their story possibly be related to God's desire for the church as well?

The first key is the verb in Genesis 2:22, which says that Eve was built from Adam's rib. Sound familiar? The church is being built just as Eve was built. The story of Eve's creation concludes two verses later in Genesis 2:24, which is quoted directly by Paul in Ephesians 5:31. Then Paul goes on to explain in the next verse that what he's really not speaking about the marriage between a man and a woman, but about the marriage between Christ and the church. Romans 5:14 says that Adam was a type of Christ, which further strengthens the connection between Adam and Eve and Christ and the church.

Fast forward to Revelation. Christ is the Lamb (John 1:29), but He is also the bridegroom (John 3:29) and in Revelation 19:7, the Lamb is the bridegroom, getting married to His wife. In Revelation 21:9, an angel tells John, "Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife." But what is shown in verse 10 is the holy city, the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the wife because the New Jerusalem is the church and the wife is also church. The story of Christ's romantic love for the church can be seen throughout the entire Bible (if you are a hardcore reader, check out Isaiah 54:5), beginning with the type of Adam and Eve and ending with the marriage of the Lamb with the New Jerusalem.

Note: If you would like to know more about the significance of each of the building materials, find a way to get in contact with this blogger.