A Computer (Part 5) - Breathe

He doesn't need help from anyone. He gives life, breath, and everything else to all people. (Acts 17:25 CEV)


After the past several days, I need to just take a moment to slow down and breathe.  I traveled from Valparaiso, IN to Cincinnati, OH and back over a day and a half time period (stopping long enough to sleep some and enjoy some La Rosa's pizza with family).  After returning, I attended meetings, prepared videos, encouraged and prayed for the Life Bridge team, then left for Gurnee, IL to watch my middle child dance a Six Flags. (Late-night driving, tight schedules, and forty-four degree weather with sleet and 30mph wind-gusts couldn't stop this dad from supporting his children.)  The result?  My oldest is now home from college (for a little while), my second danced beautifully at her final Six-Flags performance, and my youngest is getting his birthday wish to have our whole family together.


Stopping to take a breath is good.  When I do, I sometimes think about where that breath comes from.  I remember that God first breathed into Adam the breath of life.  I remember that my body automatically remembers to breath even when I don't consciously, purposefully think about it.  I remember that without breath, my body would shut down much faster than without water or food.  Throughout history people have associated breath with life.


Then I start thinking about science again.  What do I need from the breath.  The answer is, of course, primarily Oxygen.  With all the people breathing in the world (not to mention all the animals), why don't we run out of Oxygen?  Oh, that's easy.  We learned this in grade school science class.  Green plants and trees produce Oxygen using a process called photosynthesis.  What do they need to perform this process?  Well, Water, soil, sunlight, and...wait for it....Carbon Dioxide...the very molecule we exhale as an unneeded waste from our breathing process.

No animals...no Oxygen.  No plants...no Carbon Dioxide.  We would use it all up.  But because there is a balance between these forms of life on the earth, life as we know it continues.  If there was an imbalance between the two, life as we know it would cease to exist.


Water, soil, sunlight, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, photosynthesis, lungs and the breathing cycle.  They all need to fit together like those pieces in a computer...click...click...click...