The Blind Shall See....

If the tongue gets mentioned for its disproportionate effect, among functioning body parts, few are more eulogized than eyesight.

The Eye

Multilayering of the RETINA, with a complex light imaging system of myriadic rods and cones, will be familiar terrain for those acquainted with the Intelligent Design debate.

I've recently discovered, despite having a reasonable grasp upon the structure and function of the human visual organ (for many years), my relative ignorance of its most awe-striking, superficial, anterior, part.

The Cornea

The cornea, more than the rest, is the clear window of the soul, which omits convergent rays into the eyeball to form images on the retina (upside down and left to right).

Its Structure

Moving from the tough, impenetrable, tissue of the white sides of the eye left, right, top and bottom, on the visual globe (the SCLERA), towards the centre, you come to a junction of its opaque tissue with the clear part (the cornea).

What I had never discerned, prior to the last few months, is that although the cornea is a wafer thin transparent layer, it is composed of three tiers of cells, which by a process of being constantly refreshed and renewed, allow a person to see unimpeded. These layers are staked on top of each other to form a smooth refractive surface - this means that the picture we have on the back of eye can be processed in the brain in-focus, and distortion and pixilation is prevented.

The inmost layer of ENDOTHELIUM has little chemical pumps which maintain the clarity, health, nourishment and chemical balance of the whole - it also serves to prevent the watery fluid in the anterior chamber of the eye from leaking out. When its front surface (DESCEMET'S MEMBRANE) cracks , and water leaks out into the cornea to form a mist, it is this layer of cells that pumps hard to extract unwelcome fluid and clear the obstructing fog. I guess it is a little bit like a pump or sump in your basement designed to clear up the mess after floods or leaks.

The middle layer of the cornea is composed of the STROMA or fibres of the common body connective tissue, COLLAGEN. This helps to give structure and shape to the cornea - if it is scarred by injury or infection, or some other pathological condition, vision gets distorted, and you need glasses, contact, or surgical interventions of various types.

The outermost, or third tier of corneal tissue, the EPITHELIUM, seals the cornea up, guards against both infection and invasion, and serves as the windshield(screen) of the eye against unwanted injurious elements. This is the layer of cells over which the eyelid wipers pass to clear debris that lies strewn on the visual path.

Its Intricacy

Now... if these were not amazingly complex facts in themselves, what really astonished me was that this epithelial, outer, tissue was actually comprised of three separate additional layers of cells. These are little tile-like intersecting squamous cells that form a watertight, interlocking, pavement on the surface of the orb - you can get the tessellation idea in the pink diagram below.

Its Marvel

And to cap it all, these little cells never stand still but are in a constant state of flux in a process of life and death - at the junction of the aforementioned sclera (white part) and cornea (clear part), is a rim or LIMBUS of reproducing cells: every 7-10 days, on average, new cells are given birth on the active outer ring, which then migrate towards the central corneal PUPIL bullseye point.

What's more is this - after about a week, the cells that had been located most centrally, reach the end of their life, then die, shrink and drop-off (or desquamate), only to be replaced by the next little tiles which arrives from the edge of on the corneal epithelial "railroad" conveyor belt.

This entire process of cellular reproduction, migration, renewal and degradation is sovereignly orchestrated, governed and ordained, through a complex chemical system that includes kinins, ligands, growth factors and insulin (which is beyond my grasp, I suspect, in at least a biochemical sense)!

Applications

There are number of things to say by way of application of these anatomical and physiological facts:

First, in light of such vast microstructural complexity of each cell in all layers of the cornea (each little cells is a factory that functions in a microcosm of its own), there is only One Vast Loving Personal Intelligence, or God and LORD, who could ever design or create the visual organ in human heads - evolution-by-chance is a ridiculous, nonsensical, deception designed by the devil to dupe those who are stubbornly blind to truth.

Second, in light of the fact that all these layers have been placed in the front of your eye by God, so that you might be able to see, you should remember every day to bless the LORD if you are not blind.

Third, in light of the fact that small rays of light beam out from God's mind to illumine scientific brains, and to irradiate surgical skills, it is a wonder of the secular government of Christ, that individual layers, partial thickness grafts or whole corneas can now be transplanted with pinpoint precision to restore human vision. Is it mere accident that those who would be permanently blind in the Old Testament age by sight loss, now have eyes restored during Christ's Mediatorial Reign? Surely there is greater-by-far spiritual light but also much more physical help. This is not due, primarily, to the relentless onward march of the genius of man, but to common grace and wisdom, bestowed on human hearts, to administer His kind reign.

Fourth, the more we grasp about the first intrauterine stages of the development of three different cells lines which populate the embryonic disc, and move on to the awe with which we greet and watch the process of childbirth; and the more we start to mine God's depths of anatomy, physiology and biochemical feats, we can read and sing Psalm 139, hymning with hand on heart, that every organelle of every body part of each man, woman, boy or girl on earth, has been truly, fearfully and wonderfully made by God.

Fifth, and finally, let us thank God for the eyes we have in our head, by which we can see the glory of the Logos in Creation and the beauty of Christ in Redemption. If you have two eyes, use them to read God's book - keep looking up until faith gives way to sight. No wonder Paul prays for improved sight in far more vital eyes that bring vision into our hearts.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all - Ephesians 1:15-23

It is the vision of the spiritually regenerate mind that enables true believers to be transformed by steadily gazing on Messiah Jesus in Scripture.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit - 2 Corinthians 3:18

And, if you still don't see as well as you might, then ask the Father for increased illumination granted by His promised Spirit to "neon light" the blessed face of His dazzling divine Son - this, indeed, is a sight that must progressively shape, until we are eternally and finally transfigured and transfixed by our nearer, more-glorious, gaze on Christ.