BONE--A MARVEL OF STRENGTH

Was It Designed?

● Bone has been described as “an engineering masterpiece of tensile, compressive and elastic strength.” Why?

Consider: The human skeleton consists of approximately 206 bones and 68 joints. The longest bone is the femur, or thighbone; the smallest is the stapes, a bone inside your ear. As skilled gymnasts clearly demonstrate, bones, muscles, cartilage, and joints can give a healthy body an astonishing degree of flexibility and range of movement. “The thumb alone would convince anyone that the architect of our body (whoever that may be to each one of us) had to be a genius!” says the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

Bones can also take an incredible pounding. “[They] are constructed in exactly the same way that reinforced concrete is constructed,” states the institute. “The steel of reinforced concrete provides the tensile strength, while the cement, sand, and rock provide the compressional strength. However, the compressional strength of bone is greater than that of even the best reinforced concrete.” “We only wish we could mimic it,” said Robert O. Ritchie, a professor of materials science at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.

Unlike concrete, bone is an essential part of countless living organisms. And it is dynamic. It is able to repair itself, respond to hormones that affect its growth and development, and even play a key role in the manufacture of blood cells. Also, like muscle, it slowly grows stronger as the load on it increases. Hence, athletes have heavier bones than do so-called couch potatoes.

What do you think? Is bone a product of chance? Or was it designed?

For more please go to www.jw.org

A VERSATILE VEGETABLE

By “Awake!” correspondent in Australia

HOW would you like to plant a vegetable that would supply you and your family with some food for up to 20 years? What if it did this without any replanting or much cultivation? Would it not also be appealing if the plant had the habit of yielding when other vegetables are in short supply? Well, that versatile vegetable is asparagus! And for that lengthy supply, a family of five would need only about 12 crowns of it.

Do you wonder about nutritional value? Well, asparagus contains varying amounts of calcium, phosphorus, sodium, potassium and iron, as well as vitamins A, B₁, B₂, C and niacin—all necessary for a healthful diet. That in itself is good reason to include asparagus in the home garden bed!

This tasty relative of the regal lily has been lending interest to menus ever since it was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. By 200 B.C.E. information on its cultivation was being recorded by the Romans.

While many consider asparagus a common vegetable, others classify it as a delicious luxury. Although usually retailed in canned form, the fresh spears also are of delectable flavor. Both white and green asparagus is cultivated, green possibly being best for the home gardener because it combines higher food value with better flavor.

In growing white asparagus, the crowns are planted in a trench and mounds are built up above them to blanch the spears before they emerge from the soil. For green asparagus, no earthing up is done. The spears are cut when they are seven to nine inches (18 to 23 centimeters) above the ground.

Asparagus Culture

Asparagus can be grown from seeds, or crowns can be purchased from a nursery. It is noteworthy that male plants yield a much higher crop than do female plants. The difference between the two can be seen during the second season, when female plants produce seed. Asparagus is not restricted to one type of soil. However, the soil must be well drained (especially if it is heavy) and well watered if sandy.

Preparation should include the digging in of animal manure or compost. The crowns should be set 30 inches (76 centimeters) apart on a small heap of soil in a trench eight inches (20 centimeters) deep and 12 inches (30 centimeters) wide. (A complete fertilizer should have been applied previously to the bed.) The crowns should then be covered with two inches (5 centimeters) of soil, and the bed should be kept well cultivated until the appearance of the first shoots. As the plants develop, the trench should be gradually filled up with soil. In the case of white asparagus, the mounds should be raised nine to 12 inches (23 to 30 centimeters).

When well fertilized, the plants produce a fernlike growth above the ground and sturdy, vigorous crowns beneath the surface. Very important factors are the elimination of perennial weeds from the bed during preparation, as well as good weed control throughout the growing season. However, the use of herbicides may lead to damage, if they are used more than once each season.

Harvesting the Crop

Having established your asparagus bed, patience is essential. The spears should not be harvested during the first season. Instead, allow the crowns to build up. They should be harvested only lightly—for no more than two weeks—during the second season. But when the bed has been established for three years, you can go right ahead and enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Check the bed every day during the harvest season. Growth then is rapid and, if the spears are left too long, they will become tough at the butt. White asparagus is cut by inserting a knife into the mound eight or nine inches (20 or 23 centimeters) below the tip of the spear as soon as it breaks through the ground. Green asparagus is cut just below the surface when the tip is seven to nine inches (18 to 23 centimeters) above the ground and before the scales on the tip begin to open.

In a mature bed, the harvesting period lasts for three months, and at the end of that time a change will be seen in the growth of the spears. At this stage they will appear to be stunted, and this is the signal to stop harvesting the crop and allow the bed to complete the growing cycle. The resultant fernlike growth, which has no nutritional value, should be cut in the late autumn or early winter, just prior to the full ripening of the seed. This can then be burned or composted. The period of top growth allows time for the root system to build up strength for the growth of the next season.

Preparation for the Table

“What shall we eat?” This versatile vegetable may be just the thing needed to answer that familiar question. Whether the occasion calls for a quick snack or a bowl of hot soup, asparagus may suit your taste. Simply steam some of it slowly in a small amount of salted water to which a little vinegar has been added. This produces a delicious asparagus to be eaten alone, served either on hot, buttered toast, or with a salad. For the vegetable to be more pleasing to the eye when served, the tips of the spears should not be broken. Careful cooking will prevent this. You may prefer to cook the spears in a vessel that allows them to stand upright, with the tips pointing upward, since the butts require more cooking.

Is it a cold day? If so, perhaps a bowl of hot soup will be more appetizing than a cold meal. To enhance your menu, a very nourishing soup can be prepared by using about 8 ounces (227 grams) of asparagus boiled in 1-1/2 pints (.71 liter) of water with finely chopped onion, celery and turnip, if desired. When the vegetables are tender (in about 30 minutes), they should be pressed through a sieve or liquefied in a blender. Then they should be thickened with 1-1/2 ounces (43 grams) of flour and 2 ounces (58 grams) of butter, blended with 1 pint (.47 liter) of milk and boiled for five minutes. Salt and pepper should be added according to taste. Then serve the soup hot, garnished with finely chopped parsley.

So, you might consider asparagus the next time you hear the question, “What shall we eat?” Maybe this versatile vegetable will then become a nourishing and palate-pleasing addition to your menu.

For more informative articles please go to www.jw.org

MADE TO BEAT FOREVER!

WITHIN your chest beats a truly astonishing organ about the size of your fist—your heart. Without pause, it pumps the blood that carries life-sustaining nourishment to your billions of body cells. Of this pump, doctors in the book Your Heart observe: “It is more efficient than any machine of any kind yet devised by man.”

The forces involved in the design and construction of the heart are beyond human understanding. At conception, for example, the blueprints for the heart, as well as all other body parts, are drawn up. Amazingly, in a matter of minutes all the instructions are determined within the fertilized cell to make a new person! No scientist knows how this is done.

Without observable direction, the original fertilized egg cell soon begins to divide, forming cells that are different from their predecessors. Shortly, there are many different kinds of cells that start to form into various organs. At three weeks the partly developed heart begins to beat, probably even before the mother-to-be knows that she is pregnant.

What causes these heart cells, which at first form only a straight tube, to begin to contract rhythmically? “We are still a long way from finding the final answer,” admits Dr. Robert L. DeHaan who has been studying the subject for years.

What is known, however, is fascinating. It inspires awe. Consider, for example, this beat, or contraction, of the heart that forces blood out to the rest of the body. Do you know what causes the heartbeat?

The Remarkable Control System

Responsible is the amazing ability of the heart to generate electrical impulses. Thus, if provided with oxygen and kept from drying out, the heart will continue to beat for a while even after it is removed from the body. Within the heart there is a complex system for generating and regulating electrical impulses. This remarkable control system is made up of special cells concentrated in groups in different parts of the heart.

A principal part of this system is a tiny comma-shaped structure called the sinoatrial node, or S-A node, a special tissue that is a cross between heart muscle and nerve cells. This is the heart’s primary pacemaker, and so has been called the “spark plug” for the heart. Here a regular series of electrical pulses are generated that travel through the heart and trigger its beat. The basic rate of contraction generated by these sinoatrial node cells is about 70 beats per minute, the normal heart rate of most adults.

Another part of the heart’s control system is the atrioventricular node, or A-V node. The electrical pulses from the sinoatrial node reach this part, where they are properly timed and regulated to assure good coordination of the heart’s pumping action. Then from here these pulses move swiftly through other specialized conduction tissues, including one called the bundle of His, to the rest of the heart.

The atrioventricular node also has an inherent rhythm—about 50 beats per minute—somewhat slower than the sinoatrial node. The impulse-generating function of this structure, however, is not utilized under normal conditions. But in an emergency, if the sinoatrial node fails, the atrioventricular node can serve as a reserve pacemaker. In addition, the bundle of His, along with yet other specialized conduction tissues, can serve as a last line of defense. They, too, can initiate slow contractions of the heart, about 30 to 40 beats per minute, a rate that may sustain life.

How the System Meets Body Needs

If you run to catch a bus, climb stairs, or exercise in a similarly strenuous way, the heart rate must increase to meet the body’s need for more nourishment. What tells the heart to speed up? How does it know the rate at which to beat to meet various body needs?

Signals coming through nerve connections from other parts of the body are particularly responsible. During exercise, for example, your muscles need more oxygen; so they take an increased supply from the blood. The decreased oxygen level of the blood triggers receptors in the arteries to send nerve signals to the brain. Through nerve impulses, the brain, in turn, signals the heart to beat faster, thus providing more oxygen-carrying blood for your muscles.

However, the heart is not dependent solely on such nerve connections, as illustrated in the case of heart transplants. In such operations the vagal and sympathetic nerve systems are severed, yet the transplanted heart continues to some extent to regulate its beat in response to the changing needs of the body. The heart is able to respond directly to chemicals, such as adrenaline, received through the blood stream, and thereby “knows” when to speed up or slow down.

Truly, it is wondrous how the heart is designed to keep just the right amount of blood flowing through the body to meet its changing needs! Amazing, too, are the many “backup” systems that can take over and compensate in emergencies. No wonder doctors say the heart “is more efficient than any machine of any kind yet devised by man.” A look at the heart’s tremendous capacity for work will no doubt astonish you further.

The Heart’s Capability

An adult body contains some six quarts of blood, and about 60,000 miles (96,500 kilometers) of blood vessels, including tiny capillaries. At its normal rate of about 70 beats per minute, the heart will pump some six quarts (6 liters) of blood every minute. Think of it! Your heart pushes your entire blood supply through your body in less than 60 seconds! Under ordinary conditions, it pumps up to 10 tons of blood through your vessels daily. Yet, at this rate, it is not even working very hard.

If yours is a physically fit heart, one trained by regular exercise, it may be capable of pumping as many as 30 quarts of blood or more a minute. At that rate it is pushing your entire blood supply through your body about every 10 seconds! Yes, your heart pumps so steadily and powerfully that every day it can push your blood through several thousand complete circuits of your body!

Such a marvelously designed organ may make you wonder: Were humans originally meant to live for only 70 to 80 years or so and then die? Could the heart beat indefinitely?

Meant to Beat Forever

The heart, as well as the rest of the body, is designed quite differently from any machine made by men. Machines of human design are made with permanent parts, which, of course, eventually wear out. The human body, however, differs considerably in its makeup. Years ago Dr. Paul C. Aebersold, then director of the Isotopes Division of the Atomic energy Commission, explained:

“Medical men used to think of the human body as an engine that takes in food, air, and water mainly as fuel to keep running on. Only a small part was thought to go for replacement of engine wear. Investigations with isotopes have demonstrated that the body instead is much more like a very fluid military regiment which may retain its size, form, and composition even though the individuals in it are continually changing, joining up, being transferred from post to post, promoted or demoted, acting as reserves, and finally departing after varying lengths of service.

“Tracer studies show that the atomic turnover in our bodies is quite rapid and quite complete. In a week or two half the sodium atoms will be replaced by other sodium atoms. The case is similar for hydrogen and phosphorus. Even half of the carbon atoms will be replaced in a month or two. And so the story goes for nearly all the elements. . . . In a year approximately 98 per cent of the atoms in us now will be replaced by other atoms that we take in in our air, food, and drink.”

Thus, regardless of whether a person lives to 20 years of age, 80 years, 800 years, or forever, most of the materials in his body would be less than a year old. Cell duplication theoretically should keep the body alive forever. Medical researchers have, at times, drawn attention to this potential, noting that it is easier to explain why humans should live forever than why they should die.

Nevertheless, as time passes, the heart, along with the rest of the body, fails to maintain its ability systematically to replace its cells before they become defective and die. Why? Cell biologists have many theories. But they do not really know for sure. Obviously, something eventually goes wrong in the inner workings of cells, and those wearing out and dying are not always replaced by new ones through cell division. So humans grow old and die.

If a correction could be made, and the right balance in cell replacement and renewal was maintained, humans could live forever. However, man cannot repair the malfunction. He did not design the body, including its marvelous heart. Only the Creator, Jehovah God, can make the adjustments so that humans will live forever. And in time God will do this, as his Word the Bible promises. For example, Romans 6:23 says: “The gift God gives is everlasting life.” Psalm 37:29 foretells: “The righteous themselves will possess the earth, and they will reside forever upon it.”

For more informative articles please go to www.jw.org

BONE--A MARVEL OF STRENGTH

 Bone has been described as “an engineering masterpiece of tensile, compressive and elastic strength.” Why?

Consider: The human skeleton consists of approximately 206 bones and 68 joints. The longest bone is the femur, or thighbone; the smallest is the stapes, a bone inside your ear. As skilled gymnasts clearly demonstrate, bones, muscles, cartilage, and joints can give a healthy body an astonishing degree of flexibility and range of movement. “The thumb alone would convince anyone that the architect of our body (whoever that may be to each one of us) had to be a genius!” says the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.

Bones can also take an incredible pounding. “[They] are constructed in exactly the same way that reinforced concrete is constructed,” states the institute. “The steel of reinforced concrete provides the tensile strength, while the cement, sand, and rock provide the compressional strength. However, the compressional strength of bone is greater than that of even the best reinforced concrete.” “We only wish we could mimic it,” said Robert O. Ritchie, a professor of materials science at the University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.

Unlike concrete, bone is an essential part of countless living organisms. And it is dynamic. It is able to repair itself, respond to hormones that affect its growth and development, and even play a key role in the manufacture of blood cells. Also, like muscle, it slowly grows stronger as the load on it increases. Hence, athletes have heavier bones than do so-called couch potatoes.

What do you think? Is bone a product of chance? Or was it designed?

For more informative articles please go to www.jw.org

THE BIRD'S EGG

● The bird’s egg has been called “a miracle of packaging.” Why?

Consider: While it appears solid, the calcium-rich shell of a chicken egg can have up to 8,000 microscopic pores. These allow oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to escape—an important exchange if the embryo is to breathe. Yet, the shell and several membranes prevent bacteria from infecting the embryo. Albumen—a gelatinlike substance with a high water content—gives the egg its ability to absorb shock.

Researchers would like to imitate the structure of the egg to create products with better shock protection and a film coating that could protect fruit from bacteria and parasites. However, “copying nature is not so easy,” writes Marianne Botta Diener in Vivai magazine. Attempts thus far, she notes, have not been environmentally friendly.

What do you think? Did this “miracle of packaging,” the bird’s egg, come about by chance? Or was it designed?

 

For more informative articles please see AWAKE magazine at www.jw.org

HONEY ANTS---A DESERT DELICACY

 YUMINIYA, our Aboriginal friend, wants to share one of her desert secrets with us. Leading us into arid scrub north of Alice Springs in central Australia, she carefully examines the sandy ground. There, underneath the mulga trees, a species of acacia, she spies the tiny creatures that will lead us to a sweet reward. They are honey ants.

She digs vigorously, following ant tunnels deep into the sandy soil. Soon her hole is more than three feet (1 m) deep and wide enough to sit in. “You can dig for honey ants any time of the year, but winter is best because in summer you get too hot,” she calls out from the hole. We watch as she studies the exposed tunnels with a trained eye. “You need to know which one to follow,” she explains.

Yuminiya soon finds the nest. Inside are at least 20 honey ants whose swollen abdomens, as large as grapes, are filled with amber liquid. The little insects hang from the earthen ceiling, unable to move because of their bloated state. Within minutes, Yuminiya collects over a hundred ants from several chambers. “The honey of these ants is one of our sweetest bush foods,” she says.

Living Honey Pots

Honey ants are one of the most unusual of the more than 10,000 known ant species. Unlike bees, which store honey in honeycombs, honey ants store nectar inside the living bodies of worker ants called repletes. The ant colony draws upon these living “honey pots” during lean times.

To deposit or withdraw food, an ant will use its antennas to tap the right code on the antennas of a replete. The replete then opens its mouth to unlock the “honey pot.” A special stomach valve, composed of four flaps, controls the flow in or out. Over a lifetime of several months, a replete can apparently be drained and refilled several times.

Repletes normally live a sedentary but safe existence underground, where they are protected from drought, heat, and insect predators. In this dark subterranean world, they guard against bacteria and fungi by smearing their bodies with antibiotic fluid from a special gland.

Where does the “honey” come from? The food chain, as it were, begins with the sap and nectar of acacia trees. Next, tiny insects called aphids feed on these natural juices. Worker ants then milk the aphids of some of their excess sugar, which is called honeydew, or they collect nectar directly from the trees. Finally, the workers feed this collected liquid to the repletes. Of course, since the inactive repletes have modest nutritional needs, most of the honeydew ends up in the “honey bank”!

But what about the aphids? Are they the losers here? Not at all. For one thing, the ants leave them adequate nectar. For another, the ants protect the aphids from parasites and predators. Yes, both ants and aphids are winners in this symbiotic partnership called mutualism.

“Go to the ant,” says the Bible, “see its ways and become wise. Although it has no commander, officer or ruler, it prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest.” (Proverbs 6:6-8) How true these words, for ants are indeed cooperative, highly organized, and industrious! And how amazing that these hardy desert dwellers manage to produce such a sweet delicacy in such inhospitable surroundings!

For more informative articles see AWAKE magazine at www.jw.org

WONDERS OF CREATION EXALT JEHOVAH

 JEHOVAH GOD is more exalted than imperfect humans can imagine. His creative works on earth and in the heavens bring him praise and fill us with awe.—Psalm 19:1-4.

As the Creator and Universal Sovereign, Jehovah certainly deserves to be heard when he speaks. But how amazed we would be if he were to speak to us mere humans here on earth! Suppose he spoke to you, perhaps through an angel. Surely you would pay attention. The upright man Job must have listened very attentively when God addressed him some 3,500 years ago. What can we learn from God’s words to Job regarding the earth and the material heavens?

Who Founded the Earth, and Who Controls the Sea?

Out of a windstorm, God asks Job about the earth and the sea. (Job 38:1-11) No human architect decided how big the earth should be and then helped to form it. Comparing the earth to a building, God asks Job: “Who laid its cornerstone?” Not man! God’s angelic sons looked on and rejoiced as Jehovah created this planet.

The sea is an infant in relation to God, who figuratively clothes it with garments. It “began to go forth as when it burst out from the womb.” God confines the sea as if by bars and bolted doors, and tides are regulated by lunar and solar attractions.

Says The World Book Encyclopedia: “The wind causes most ocean waves, from small ripples to giant hurricane waves more than 100 feet (30 meters) high. . . . After the wind stops, the waves continue to move over the ocean surface and can travel great distances from where they originated. They become smoother and longer. Finally, the waves reach the shoreline, where they break and form the surf.” The sea obeys God’s command: “This far you may come, and no farther; and here your proud waves are limited.”

Who Makes the Dawn Ascend?

God next asks Job about the effects of light and other matters. (Job 38:12-18) No human can command the succession of night and day. Morning light figuratively lays hold of the ends of the earth and shakes out the wicked. Sinners may perform unrighteous acts in “evening darkness.” (Job 24:15, 16) But dawn disperses many evildoers.

In God’s hand, morning light is as a seal from which the earth gets a beautiful impression. Sunlight brings to view many colors, so that the globe seems to be arrayed in splendid garments. Job had nothing to do with this and had not walked about in the watery deep to take inventory of its treasures. Why, to this day researchers have only limited knowledge of oceanic life!

Who Has Storehouses of Snow and Hail?

No man has escorted either light or darkness to its home or has entered the storehouses of snow and hail that God keeps back for “the day of fight and war.” (Job 38:19-23) When Jehovah used hail against his foes at Gibeon, “there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword.” (Joshua 10:11) He may use hailstones of undisclosed size to destroy wicked humans led by Gog, or Satan.—Ezekiel 38:18, 22.

Egg-size hailstones killed 25 people and injured 200 others in central Henan Province, China, in July 2002. Regarding a hailstorm in 1545, Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini wrote: “We were one day distant from Lyons . . . when the heavens began to thunder with sharp rattling claps. . . . After the thunder the heavens made a noise so great and horrible that I thought the last day had come; so I reined in for a moment, while a shower of hail began to fall without a drop of water. . . . The hail now grew to the size of big lemons. . . . The storm raged for some while, but at last it stopped . . . We showed our scratches and bruises to each other; but about a mile farther on we came upon a scene of devastation which surpassed what we had suffered, and defies description. All the trees were stripped of their leaves and shattered; the beasts in the field lay dead; many of the herdsmen had also been killed; we observed large quantities of hailstones which could not have been grasped with two hands.”—Autobiography (Book II, 50), Harvard Classics, Volume 31, pages 352-3.

What will happen when Jehovah opens his storehouses of snow and hail against his enemies? They cannot possibly survive when snow or hail is used to carry out his will.

Whose Handiwork Are Rain, Dew, Frost, and Ice?

Jehovah next asks Job about rain, dew, frost, and ice. (Job 38:24-30) God is the great Rainmaker, and even “the wilderness in which there is no earthling man” enjoys his blessing. Rain, ice, and frost have no human father or originator.

The Nature Bulletin states: “The strangest and perhaps the most important property [of ice] is that water expands as it freezes . . . The blanket of ice that forms and floats on a pond in winter makes it possible for aquatic plants and animals (fish, etc.) to remain alive in the water underneath. If . . . water contracted and became denser as it solidified, ice would be heavier than water and sink to the bottom. More ice would form on the surface until the pond was frozen solid. . . . In the cooler parts of the world the rivers, ponds, lakes, and even the oceans would all be permanently frozen.”

How thankful we can be that bodies of water do not freeze solid! And we certainly are grateful that as Jehovah’s handiwork, rain and dew invigorate the earth’s vegetation.

Who Set the Statutes of the Heavens?

God next asks Job about the heavens. (Job 38:31-33) The Kimah constellation is usually identified as the Pleiades, a group consisting of seven large stars and a number of smaller ones some 380 light-years from the sun. Man cannot “tie fast the bonds of the Kimah constellation,” binding that group in a cluster. No human can “loosen the very cords of the Kesil constellation,” generally identified as the stellar group called Orion. Whatever may be the present identification of the Mazzaroth and Ash constellations, man cannot control and guide them. Humans cannot alter “the statutes of the heavens,” the laws governing the universe.

God established the laws that guide the heavenly bodies, which influence earth’s weather, tides, atmosphere, and the very existence of life on this planet. Consider the sun. Concerning it, The Encyclopedia Americana (1996 Edition) states: “The sun’s rays supply the earth with heat and light, contribute to the growth of plant life, evaporate water from the ocean and other bodies of water, play a role in the production of winds, and perform many other functions that are vital to the existence of life on earth.” The same reference work says: “To appreciate the vastness of the power that is inherent in sunlight, one need only reflect that all the power represented in the winds and in dams and rivers and all the power contained in natural fuels such as wood, coal, and oil is nothing more than sunlight that has been stored up by a tiny planet [the earth] 93 million miles [150 million kilometers] away from the sun.”

Who Put Wisdom in the Clouds?

Jehovah tells Job to consider the clouds. (Job 38:34-38) Man cannot order a single cloud to appear and release its water. But how dependent humans are on the water cycle that the Creator has established!

What is the water cycle? One reference work states: “The water cycle consists of four distinct stages: storage, evaporation, precipitation, and runoff. Water may be stored temporarily in the ground; in oceans, lakes, and rivers; and in ice caps and glaciers. It evaporates from the earth’s surface, condenses in clouds, falls back to the earth as precipitation (rain or snow), and eventually either runs into the seas or reevaporates into the atmosphere. Almost all the water on the earth has passed through the water cycle countless times.”—Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005.

Rain-filled clouds are like water jars of heaven. When Jehovah tips them, they may pour down so much rain that the dust becomes mire and the clods cleave together. God can produce rain or hold it back.—James 5:17, 18.

Rain is often accompanied by lightning, but man cannot cause it to fulfill his wishes. Lightnings are represented as reporting to God and saying, “Here we are!” Compton’s Encyclopedia states: “Lightning produces significant chemical changes in the atmosphere. As a stroke moves through the air, it generates tremendous heat that unites nitrogen and oxygen to form nitrates and other compounds. These compounds fall to the Earth with the rain. In this way, the atmosphere is able continually to help replenish the supply of nutrients that soil needs to produce plants.” Full knowledge of lightning remains a mystery to man but not to God.

Wonders of Creation Bring God Praise

Creation’s wonders truly do exalt the Creator of all things. (Revelation 4:11) How Job must have been impressed by Jehovah’s words regarding the earth and celestial bodies in space!

The wonders of creation we have just considered are not the only questions and descriptions presented to Job. Yet, even those we have considered move us to exclaim: “Behold! God is more exalted than we can know.”—Job 36:26.

   
For more informative articles please go to www.jw.org