Weekly Drawing and Thoughts
What are you made of?
This week my imagination and Sharpie markers went down the atomic rabbit hole, asking a simple question: what are you made of? The human body is built from unimaginably small pieces, assembled with astonishing precision. The average human body contains roughly 7 octillion atoms. By mass, we are composed of about 65% oxygen, 18% carbon, 10% hydrogen, 3% nitrogen, with the remaining 4% made up of calcium, phosphorus, and other trace elements.
At the atomic level, we begin to see just how finely tuned our design truly is. Take carbon, the element that provides the backbone of biological life. With six protons, carbon has exactly four valence electrons, allowing it to form four stable covalent bonds. These bonds are strong enough to endure, yet flexible enough to rearrange into complex molecules. If carbon had three or five valence electrons, the chemistry required for life would not be possible. Atoms themselves exist in a delicate balance between collapse, where everything fuses or decays, and chaos, where nothing binds. Even the electromagnetic force must be precisely calibrated. If it were slightly stronger, electrons would bind too tightly and chemistry would fail. If it were slightly weaker, electrons would not remain bound at all.
Life is not an accident. The more I learn, the more I stand in awe of just how finely tuned creation truly is. One day I will meet my Maker, and I suspect that when that day comes, my awe and wonder will increase beyond measure.
“For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Colossians 1:16–17 (ESV)
What are you chasing
What are you chasing?
I found myself this week asking the question, What are you chasing? It emerged from a conversation with my wife and lingered in my heart. Our brains naturally measure experiences against whatever we value most. What receives our attention becomes the lens through which everything else is evaluated.
Over the years, I have chased many things, enlisted others in the pursuit, climbed and descended many ladders, and even caught a few, only to discover they did not satisfy.
Ecclesiastes 5:10 (ESV)
“He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.”
My prayer today is that my focus would center on the things that do not perish, the things that cannot be lost, and the things that cannot be bought, sold, or traded. I pray that I would train my eyes and focus on the things that are above.
Colossians 3:1–2 (ESV)
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Listening to Learn
Listening to Learn:
I was reminded this week of the importance of listening while working through a few things with my family. Intentional listening is a muscle that requires regular exercise and, in my case, constant attention in order to be effective.
Let’s just say my usual knee-jerk reaction to trouble or conflict is to take on the role of a fixer—i.e., “Let me tell you how we’re going to solve this issue in five bullet points or less.” That typically works about as well as a zebra attempting to give directions to a fish!
This week, I intentionally paused, took time to pray, listened to God, and then listened to my family. I asked questions and found myself learning, understanding, and eventually reaching common ground. Who says you can’t teach an old zebra new tricks?
Listening—truly listening—creates space for understanding and healing. It reminds us that wisdom begins not with words, but with humility and patience.
James 1:19 (ESV) “Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”
Proverbs 18:13 (ESV) “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame.”s
In every life a little rain must fall (B. G. De Sylva, 1921)
The Pacific Northwest has been under an atmospheric river alert for weeks. My imagination pictures clouds so heavy with water I could sail across them. Yet even the thickest clouds are still 99.9% air, quietly carrying what they will one day release.
Clouds gather water slowly and let it go only when droplets grow too heavy to remain suspended. Atmospheric rivers can drop inches of rain. One inch equals 17.4 million gallons per square mile. Trillions of gallons have fallen one small drop at a time, covering the PNW in a steady, patient release.
Rain requires waiting. It does not fall where or how we would choose.
Ecclesiastes 11:3 (ESV)
“If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.”
Waiting on God’s timing invites us to trust not only when something happens, but how it happens. We may pray for breakthrough in one place, yet it arrives in another. Faith rests in the belief that God’s timing and ways are better than our own.
In life, a little rain, and a little discomfort, will fall. Yet it is the rain that draws flowers from the ground, and it is often the struggle that stretches us and allows us to grow.
Tale of Two Pumps
If you have spent much time in an old truck, you have probably had a run-in with a failing fuel pump. It does not matter how strong the engine is; you are not going anywhere without a working pump. Most old-truck pumps last around 100,000 miles. At ten miles per gallon, that is about 10,000 gallons of fuel pushed through before it finally gives out.
That simple thought sent me down a math trail about my own internal fuel pump. With an active childhood and decades of running, swimming, and biking, my heart has pumped and circulated about 2,100 gallons of blood every single day. Over 52 years that adds up to roughly 40 million gallons, enough to fill 111 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
When I sit with that, I am reminded how easy it is to overlook the quiet miracles God built into our bodies. The heart is one of His masterpieces, faithfully pulsing moment after moment, beating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Today I pause with my hand on my chest, feeling that steady rhythm. And I thank God for His unmatched craftsmanship, for this hidden gem of a pump that keeps my lifeblood flowing.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Can Nothing Even Exist?
ZOOM OUT to the scale of the entire universe, galaxies, stars, planets, black holes, gas clouds, satellites, and debris, and the amount of matter that actually takes up space is astonishingly small. The universe is 99.9999999999999999999999999999% empty, sometimes containing as little as one atom per cubic meter. Empty… but not nothing.
It made me ask the question: Can “nothing” even exist?
If “nothing” means no space, no time, no energy, no laws, and no potential, then “nothing” could never produce anything. It couldn’t spark reactions, form stars, or even be, because “being” is itself a property. True “nothingness” is impossible.
Quantum physics shows that even the vacuum of space is something, full of energy, bending, rippling, and capable of hosting particles. And even if every atom disappeared, spacetime itself would remain. You can’t remove space without removing the entire universe.
All of this reminds me how limited our understanding truly is. Science reveals wonder through observation, but also points us to mysteries too deep for us to grasp. And those mysteries point to a God far beyond our understanding, One who not only shapes stars, but speaks the very fabric of creation into existence. He is the One whose heart drives the very pulse of the universe.
“He stretches out the north over the void
and hangs the earth on nothing.”
Job 26:7 (ESV)
“Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?”
Job 26:14 (ESV)
