God’s Amazing Code of Life: DNA

DNA is like an instruction manual written in microscopic letters. An instruction manual requires an author, and the author of life is Jesus Christ. He is the master code maker. Within your DNA is a combination of 3 billion letters that code all your unique characteristics, like hair color, nose shape, number of freckles, and skin shade. Psalm 139:14 tells us that we are truly “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Your DNA reflects God’s glory.

What Is DNA?

DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is found in every cell that has a nucleus. This is around 7 trillion of the 30 to 40 trillion total cells in a full-grown adult.

DNA is called the recipe book of life. When we have a recipe, we need ingredients. The “ingredients” are found in our chromosomes, located in the nucleus of the cell. Human cells have 46 chromosomes, 23 provided from the mother and 23 from the father. Ingredients include eye color, earlobe shape, how tall you can grow, whether you are a boy or a girl, and many more.

The cell’s nucleus has chromosomes, and the chromosomes have DNA!

Within the chromosomes, DNA has a twisted ladder shape called a double helix design. The double helix is made of nucleotides. A nucleotide includes a phosphate backbone attached to a sugar molecule and one of four nitrogen bases, or letters A, T, G, and C. These letters, or bases, pair together into an organized design: A only pairs with T, and G only pairs with C. These base pairs carry volumes of organized information. In fact, if we could write down all the information in your DNA into books, it would fill 10,000 volumes!

DNA has a double helix shape and is made up of many different parts that carry information.

According to evolutionary scientists, this beautiful, complex code miraculously came together into its exact form by random chance. But is that really possible? Have you ever seen a computer code without a programmer or a book without an author? No! We can trust God’s Word from the very first verse. The Creator God is the ultimate designer, engineer, and architect. He created a code of life so complex that scientists still do not understand all the information it contains.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Your DNA is unique to you and unlike that of any other human. Even identical twins do not have 100% exact DNA information—they share about 99.9% of their DNA. DNA is like a fingerprint and can provide information that distinguishes you from other humans. This DNA fingerprint is complete at the moment your life begins.

When did your life begin? Your life began at the moment of fertilization, or when you were just one cell. The Bible tells us in Genesis 1:27 that we are made in the image of God. No new information is added to the DNA code after the very first human cell is formed, which is so important to understand. You are fully human, an image bearer of God, from the moment you are one cell to when you are 40 trillion cells as an adult. This amazing code of life clearly reminds us we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

You were fully human when you were just one cell! Have you checked out the Fearfully & Wonderfully Made exhibit at the Creation Museum with your family yet?