A glorious ladybug: Jewish DNA

One of the comical and wondrous aspects of parenthood occurs when your child "discovers" something "new."  It starts early.  What parent hasn't laughed hysterically when junior first noticed his fingers passing in front of his face at random intervals?  And then the startled awe on the month old face when he realizes that the muscle flinch in the right arm causes those micro sausages to hover there in front of the face.  Another flinch and--oh, now we get some real examination--the fingers find their way into the mouth.

A few weeks ago I was in the kitchen doing something grown-up.  In the front door storms my seven-year old with, "DADDY, COME AND SEE!  COME AND SEE!"  I bolt off my stool thinking that Mars had broken orbit had collided with the moon and the galactic cataclysm could be seen from the daytime sky.  "What?  What?" I beckoned.  "A ladybug!  Kara found a ladybug!"  Feign excitement, jaded daddy, feign excitement.  There is wonder there.  You have simply lost it.

Much of what is learned by our youngsters will be learned by their youngsters and was learned by all of us.  We shrug our shoulders and yawn.
 
My wife purchased some caterpillars a month ago hoping that they would spin cocoons and become butterflies (can you think of beautiful butterflies and not mimic Heimlich from "A Bug's Life"?).  Most cool experiments we give a shot at land with a "splut," but when the five caterpillars arrived, things looked up. All  five had survived the TLC of the US Postal Service.  In a few days, all cocooned, and within a week, all butterflied.  We felt like Watson and Crick!  I pulled out a microscope and stared in awe at the cocoon's remains, at what biologists have stared at for over a hundred years.  I felt as exultant as Emma when she rejoiced over Kara finding a ladybug.

Saturday night I came across a science headline that made me think of a child discovering it's shadow for the first time.  Check it out:

Jews Worldwide Linked by Common Genetic Ancestry

It's like I'd just read that some Harvard scientist discovered a ladybug.  Are you kidding me?  No, it was for real (here).  Some guy got published in the American Journal of Human Genetics --what?!  You're not a subscriber?-- for studying the genetic makeup of 237 Jews worldwide and discovering that Jews have a common ancestor.  I can hardly filet a fish much less dissect genetic code, but I know that fact without so much as a blood test.  In fact, I'll trump that.  Don't tell Mr. Geneticist, but I know the guy's name.

I sat down to write this post on stupid science.  You might as well prove water wet and Death Valley hot, but the more I thought about it, the more my mind changed.  My heart soared and sank in rapid succession.  It soared because it didn't surprise me a lick that science can't help but point directly to the God who is there and glorify his name.  Then it sank.  Science acts like it's discovered cancer's cure only because it refuses to accept what the Bible has stated for millenia.  I'd be willing to wager that science will soon find that within the DNA of the Jews 12 distinct and identifiable groups emerge, too (13 if you want to split hairs).

So tonight I'll try not to be jaded.  Ah, the ladybug.  Up goes the heart.  What a wonder that man has seen how the written word of the DNA declares the same thing as the written word of God!