The creation of a living being hidden in secret is as mysterious as it is miraculous. And we go on our way oblivious to the miracle.

Recently, I came across a video capturing the embryonic development of the Alpine Newt from a single cell to a juvenile. Photographer and filmmaker Jan van IJken captured the four week process condensing it down to six minutes of “otherworldly beauty.” Watch it here: The Science of Becoming

The single cell quickly cleaves into two cells, then splits into four, then eight, and soon the exponential growth of cells is untrackable. At one minute into the video, the embryo tucks into itself forming the gut. At the 1:45 mark, the nervous system begins taking shape.

At about 2:20 minutes, something even more amazing and miraculous appears in the growing embryo. Cells migrate, seemingly willy-nilly, across the surface. National Geographic author, Jason Bittel wrote, “Each is taking cues from the genetic blueprints within it as well as signals from surrounding cells to determine what sort of tissue it will become.” Clearly, each of the thousands of individual cells is being directed by the Creative Hand to its assigned place and the fulfillment of its purpose. It looks as though each is moving in rhythm with the Maestro.

By minute four, a beating heart and circulatory system come into mesmerizing focus. Red blood cells are coursing single file through feathery gills and tiny toes.

You and I started exactly the same way – one cell divided into two and life and growth began. Soon millions of cells began dancing to an unheard rhythm. Each directed by the Maestro in a great symphony of movement to its assigned place to fulfill its purpose.

You were programmed with a unique genetic code written by God Himself to make you exactly as He intended you to be. Cells followed His pattern on the pads of your fingers organizing into a one-of-a-kind fingerprint. Mysteriously, somewhere within and between neurons, your personality, gifts and sense of humor were created.

There was divine purpose in the making of you…every part, every cell of you. God intends that we continue becoming more and more like the image of Christ and thus more and more our truest selves.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!
Psalm 139:13-18, NLT