God/Blood/Strange

The level of red blood cells is in the blood is regulated by the kidneys. Like a Japanese shishi-odishi, if the level of red blood cells flowing through the filters in those organs is too low, a stream of a protein called erythropoietin begins to flow. When that protein reaches the source of blood cells—that is, the bones—then production of primitive red blood cells (reticulocytes) increases.

This is a most strange and Rube Goldbergish mechanism for such a vital function. If we are to posit a Creator God that willed it to be this way, we would have to say that God would be equally strange.

The more we explore our own body, all the way down to the molecular level, the more alien we seem. If we are made in the image of a God, that God must be alien as well. We struggle to understand both ourselves and our Creator.

To talk of the Almighty as a being or a force is to kneecap our understanding from the very first. Only God is God, and nothing but God is like God. Alleluia.

Inferring from the world, there would be no need to think God is Love. We can know that only by revelation—so far. But with time, with growing knowledge, we may finally see how we get from erythropoietin flowing down a kidney to the complete victory of Love.

But first God must be alien. We cannot skip past that time. We will know God, we will not know God, we will fear God, we will love God. All through this process, God will love us, but we will not understand what that means—until the completion.

Until then, the shishi-odishi will knock the moments, as the reticulocytes are born.