That picture, right up there?  That's Laminin.  Laminin is a protein that holds together other molecules in the human body.  It is also shaped, if you look at it just so, like a plus sign, or cross.  Sorta-kinda.

Laminin is also the most famous protein in Christendom.  

In fact, it comes up nearly every day in my life.  Or, at least, every time I talk about anything, anything at all, science-y.  I can say, "The sun is eight light-minutes away, and..." and the phone will ring, with someone telling me about Laminin.  If we mention the relative nature of time (we have an odd morning show) and how God might be understood to transcend it, the phone will ring, and it's, "You know, I heard you talking about space, and did you know that Laminin is a protein that is in our body and..."

It's like clockwork.  Every.  Single.  Time.   No biggie, but interesting.

----- 

Laminin is a miracle.  It's wonderful.  But there are other proteins, folks.  Some are sorta shaped like crosses, and some aren't, and they're all miracles, all of them.  Your whole body is a miracle, from start to finish.  You're made of dirt -- seriously -- from the very dust of the ground, just like the Bible says.  That's why we have to eat calcium and iron and other rock-bits in our cereal.  We're always losing our dust, and need to replace it.  

At the atomic level, you're essentially a new physical person every seven years.  As one biologist says, "We're more wave than particle."  Think about it:  You're somehow constant, but your body has completely changed, repeatedly.  The original parts have been replaced.  And yet "you" continue.  Like I say, miracle, for millions of reasons.  Every breath, every heartbeat.

Louie Giglio, who's a terrific speaker, made Laminin the "it", happenin' protein during his talks on a Chris Tomlin concert tour.  He had noted, on previous tours, how there's this kinda-blurry picture of a black hole in the sky that has a cross-shape to it, and it's a very visual, affecting thing.  Someone, after a show on that tour, then pointed out to him how Laminin also kinda looks like a cross, and is often diagrammed in cross-fashion, and he used this for the next go-round.

(There's no problem with this, though it occurs to the skeptic that there are millions of shapes in the sky, and millions of pictures -- like the "face" on Mars -- and a cross shape is pretty basic, and therefore likely to recur over and over.  And the same thing goes with biological structures.)

So be it.  But do all roads of wonder now have to lead to Laminin?  

----- 

Almost any talk about Laminin, and Colossians 1 gets invoked:  "In Him (Christ), all things hold together."   This is remarkable, and true.  But if Laminin holds US together, it doesn't hold all things, just the tiniest fraction of things.  What's more, Laminin, itself, has to be held together.  It's made up of atoms, which, themselves, are held together, mysteriously.  (Scientists call the binding force in every nucleus, the "Strong Force".  The nucleus is loaded with particles that should repel each other, but somehow, here we -- and everything -- are.)

If your all-time fave protein is Laminin, so be it.  I certainly don't want to make you pause and wonder LESS at Laminin, or anything else.  The world is afire with wonder. But that's just it:  If we are only particularly amazed by things that appear to be cross-shaped, or can be diagrammed in a cross-shape, and all other things only serve to remind us of things that might be diagrammed in a cross-shape, we might be missing out.  The Cross is wondrous, indeed, but the wonder of God is not limited to cross-shaped stuff.

When do lipids get a tour? 

Yeah, that's right.  I just threw down a double-negative.  On purpose.  And yes, that last sentence was a sentence fragment.

But here's the point:  I read this article here: (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/22399-5-things-marriage-isnt) in Relevant, about "What Marriage Isn't", and it's kinda sad, and it's not what my marriage isn't not...not.  Or something.  I'm just one guy, but I'm hoping I'm not alone, here.  

Yes, a hopeless romantic may well need his balloon of expectations popped.  I'm all for that, and marriage, or anything else in life, doesn't mean "all your problems go away", or any other ridiculous extreme thing.  But I've actually grown weary of the DE-flation of expectations about marriage.  No, once again, it's not the trite "sunshine and roses" every day -- obviously -- but neither is it all storm clouds and laundry, either.