Psalm 40:5a

“Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts which are toward us cannot be recounted to You in order…”

 

Often the most productive science is done when scientists, as one founder of modern science put it, “Think God’s thoughts after Him.” For example, while antibiotics have saved millions of lives, they have proven to be only a temporary solution. In addition, there are some bacterial infections that move too fast for antibiotics to be effective.

Vibrio vulnificus is one such bacterium. It is typically found in oysters. The bacterium has little effect on healthy people, but those whom it infects are most likely to be dead within 24 hours. How do we combat such a fast-working deadly bacterium by thinking God’s thoughts after Him? By finding something that is even faster at infecting the bacterium and killing it. That’s exactly what medical researchers have done. They have found a virus that infects the bacteria, rapidly reproducing inside the bacterium until it causes the bacterium to burst. Once the bacteria are all dead, the virus can no longer reproduce. Researchers infected eight mice with Vibrio vulnificus. If they had not at the same time infected the mice with the virus, all would have been dead within 18 hours. As a result, five of the mice never became ill. This approach is also being successfully used to treat bacteria that cause skin infections.

The successes that come from thinking God’s thoughts after Him demonstrate that God is the Author of science and all that it studies.

Author: Paul A. Bartz

Prayer: Dear Father, help me to think more as You think. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Ref: Science News, 6/3/00, p. 358, “Viruses that slay bacteria draw new interest.”

 

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