{"id":4002,"date":"2024-09-13T08:54:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T12:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4002"},"modified":"2024-09-13T08:58:20","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T12:58:20","slug":"the-real-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/13\/the-real-you\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real You"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, <\/em>click here<\/a>

If you\u2019re squeamish thinking about bacteria, this might be a good place to stop reading.

There are a lot of bacteria in the world. At least several million species exist. Most of them are still unnamed. 

By number and by mass, there are more of these one-celled organisms on our planet than any other living thing.

Before we\u2019re tempted to wish them out of existence, it\u2019s worth noting that most bacterial species are neutral when it comes to human beings. They have no interest in what cars we drive, how we like our burgers, and whether the Dow will hit 42,000 before the end of this month.

A very small minority of species is capable of making us sick. Another small minority is essential to our daily digestive happiness.

Bathing and washing hands on a regular basis are good strategies to keep pathological bacteria at bay. 

But make no mistake: There is not the remotest possibility that we can ever distance ourselves from the microbes which share all of our waking and sleeping moments. That\u2019s because biologists have learned that every person is in fact a human\/bacterial ecosystem.

Professor Steven Novella of Yale University School of Medicine points out that we are literally occupied <\/em>by bacteria, inside and out.

How many cells comprise your body? The best current estimate is 30 trillion. How many bacterial cells are associated with your body at this moment? Microbiologists propose at least 40 trillion. Wherever you go today, you\u2019ll be carrying more cells of them<\/em> than there are of you<\/em> \u2013 a thought that should help us prepare for Halloween.

Bacteria are wonderfully specific. Certain species live only on your elbows. Others thrive only on your gums, inside your lungs, between your toes, or along the lining of your intestines. Think of a multi-layered shag carpet of bacteria covering every millimeter of what you call \u201cyou.\u201d

Novella points out, with unfeigned enthusiasm, that researchers have discovered that the superorganism or \u201cmicroflora\u201d of you-and-the-bacteria-all-over-you is almost like a fingerprint. It\u2019s now possible to identify people based on the specific bacterial colonies that accompany them throughout life.

The human womb is sterile. We\u2019re all born into the world carrying no bacteria at all. 

But within our first 48 hours of life we are hosting a thriving microbial ecosystem \u2013 a \u201cbacterial signature\u201d that will accompany us for years to come.

What\u2019s really interesting is that your family can be distinguished from the family living next door because of the bacterial species particularly associated with your genealogy. It\u2019s probably wise not to think about that overly much at your next extended family gathering.

Will the forensic pathologists of CSI one day catch criminals by means of their bacterial fingerprint?

That doesn\u2019t seem very likely. Nor does it seem likely that people will begin to identify themselves based on the microbes traveling with them throughout life.

Who you are \u2013 or, more particularly, who you think <\/em>you are \u2013 is not a trivial matter. Your identity will influence everything you think and say and do over the next 24 hours \u2013 how you treat others, whether or not you choose to forgive yourself, and whether you believe your own life is part of a master plan or just a biological accident.

According to Jesus, you are a treasure \u2013 a child of God worth loving, cherishing, rescuing, and transforming.  

Which means you are far more than the sum of your trillions of parts and your trillions of hitchhikers.

The Bible\u2019s ultimate expression of God\u2019s never-ending care for individuals is displayed in these awestruck words of David:

For you created my inmost being;<\/em>
    you knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well\u2026
 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand\u2014
    when I awake, I am still with you.<\/em>
(Psalm 139:13-14, 17-18)

God loved the world so much that he came into this world for you<\/em>.  The real you. 

And nothing that can happen today, tomorrow, or the next day can possibly change that.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here If you\u2019re squeamish thinking about bacteria, this might be a good place to stop reading. There are a lot of bacteria in the world. At least several million species exist. Most of them are still unnamed.  By number and by mass, there are more of these one-celled organisms on our planet than any… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[805,502,6],"class_list":["post-4002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bacteria","tag-identity","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4005,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions\/4005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}