What is a Microscope to a Biologist?
“What the telescope is the astronomer, or the microscope is to the biologist, the names of God are to His children” — author unknown.
On my first day of my Ph.D., my advisor gave me a tour of the new lab I would spend the next (at least) five years of my life in. After showing me my desk and work bench, we took a quick break in her office. She explained to me that the next place we would be going was the extremely expensive two-photon microscope room hidden away in the back of the lab. Her eyes pierced mine as she described how sensitive the microscope was to light, and how extraordinarily careful I had to be to make sure not to expose the signal detectors to any sort of light from the room. The photons, she stressed, would overwhelm and ruin the microscope that cost more than what I would make in ten years of grad school. To say that I was scared of this microscope was an understatement, but I had joined my program to work with her, and we had already discussed that my dissertation research would focus on tracking neurons in live tadpoles, and this was the only microscope capable of doing that. There was no way around it — I must become intimately acquainted with this large, foreboding, and frankly wildly expensive machine.
The real question is why spend so much money on something that is so easily ruined? That is to say, what is a microscope to a biologist?
My two-photon microscope lets me image individual neurons in live animals. I can track them as the animal develops, and how experiences they go through change them. It gives me insight into the brain that is otherwise impossible to know. Microscopes have allowed scientists present and of ages past to study and understand our bodies and how they experience and process the world around us. How they develop, how they age, and how disease changes them. To put it simply, without the microscope, we would have no modern medicine and an underappreciated view of just how complex we are.
I must, however, point out the elephant in the room — most high school graduates have used a microscope. So, the question must be asked, what is a microscope to a non-biologist? To a lawyer? A CEO? A high school student? Can we generalize this statement to “what is a microscope to the field of biology?”. My answer: absolutely not. Even as an undergraduate working with fixed brains under a microscope, I did not know that microscope. I did not understand the capabilities it possessed, and I limited myself to pushing the buttons exactly as it was explained to me by my professor. It was not until I started graduate school that I got to know my microscope, and it is not until I got to know my microscope that I truly became a biologist.
What does this have to do with the names of God? Before I address this, I must lastly explain the two aspects that all microscopes have in common and how they are of utmost importance to a biologist — the microscope depicts the world as it actually is and when a scientist knows how to operate it properly, they understand the world and living things to depths not dreamable to those without one.
These two essential aspects are what this author was getting at when he compared microscopes to the names of God. the Lord’s names show us who He is — and to know God, is to see the world in its reality. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that Heals, therefore this world must be broken. He is Jehovah-M’Kaddess, the God Who Sanctifies, so therefore evil must exist and need to be cleansed. He is Jehovah-Raah, the Lord my Shepherd, so I therefore must be prone to wander and get lost. He is YHWH, I AM WHO I AM, the very verb that defines existence. The names of God reveal reality. The names of God also reveal God Himself to us and how He works. He is Jehovah-Jireh, the God Who provides. He is Yaweh-Shalom, the God of peace. He is named by a rejected, unredeemed woman as the God Who sees. His names explain His character to us and tell us how we are able to experience His promises to us.
Any person reading this now knows the names of God, so why are they only valuable in the hands of His children? The same way that a microscope is only valuable in the hands of a trained operator. The knowledge is not the propositional type of knowledge that is factual, but rather refers to a perspectival type of knowledge where knowledge is experience. God’s children can experience Him, which leads to an intimate understanding of His that is otherwise impossible. Just as the high school biology student cannot truly appreciate and operate a microscope, and therefore cannot investigate the reality of the natural world, so are those who do not know God unable to use the names of God to understand who He is, and the reality of existence. Just as a microscope and the names of God explain the reality of the world, truly understanding the names of God as His child is just as important as a biologist understanding their microscope.
What the microscope is to a biologist, so the names of God are to His children.
So, children of Jehovah, learn His names. Pray them. Revel in the majesty of Adonai. They will not only reveal to you who God explains Himself to be, but also how He has created reality. However, I must warn you, names have meaning. Use His names with the same way that a scared first year graduate student would use a two-photon microscope — with fear and trembling
