Celestial Physiology

Like most 4 year old boys, LJ is somewhat fascinated by the excretory system.  Tonight, before bedtime, (read: stall tactic!!!!), he asked me how the body knows what to make into poop and what to make into pee.  Recognizing the stall tactic, and knowing that if I told him it could wait til tomorrow that it would lead to a 10 minute whining session, I tried to give an abbreviated answer without going into too much detail.  Of course, as 4 year olds do, he kept asking "How?" and "Why?" which led to a bit more detail.  We ended up acting out receptors and transport pumps across membranes from the intestines and into the blood.  He still wanted to know how the body knew how to do that.  Then, I finally realized that I knew the ultimate answer.  "Because Heavenly Father designed it that way."  Then, we had a short discussion of all the cool physiological things Heavenly Father designed in our bodies.

I have mentioned before that my expensive, private college was worth every penny, (even though the cost of 1 year there was about the same as 4 years at BYU).  I had some of the most amazing teachers and, since I majored in biochemistry and biology with a minor in chemistry, I was able to have a number of small classes.  I got to know my professors very well.  My adviser taught Anatomy/Physiology and is one of the best in the county.  (Seriously, his FREE podcasts are consistently ranked in the Top 25 of educational podcasts on iTunes and he gets fan mail from around the world from doctors to businessmen to writers.  If you want to take a free (and amazing) class just search "Gerald Cizadlo" on iTunes.)  He taught in metaphors and his catch phrase was "Can you picture it?"  He knew that if you could understand it enough to watch it like a movie in your mind, you'd have a decent understanding of it.  I also took Pathophysiology from him but my favorite class was definitely Embryology.  Even without a large religious influence in my life at the time, I was fascinated at how a Creator could create a human being.  I looked at the countless things that could go wrong during the development of a baby and wondered how in the world we all got here safe and sound.  That being said, I wish that I could have had the BYU version of Embryology added to my class with Doc C.  Adding that eternal perspective of an omniscient, charitable and loving creator who wasn't only a creator but our Heavenly Father, would have made the class that much more interesting.

LJ, of course, asked how Heavenly Father knew how to make our bodies so awesome.  My response was that he is the smartest person ever.  What is even more awesome than that is that He wants to share all of his smarts with us.  He would teach us everything that he knows if we only would let him.  Now, if only I could be so willing to listen and be taught...