GRATEFUL FOR SCIENCE

Thank God for science. Some in the fundamentalist camp may consider this statement blasphemous. I believe that the benefits of science are manifestations of godliness in this world.
Once again, I have returned from a visit to my ailing ninety-one year old mother-in –law. For over three months she has lived on “Ensure,” a thick, chocolaty liquid that contains the necessary nutrients for basic human survival. She is, thankfully, still alive. She has diminished in size to just above eighty pounds. Her reason for not being able to eat was explained by her physician as related to severe physical pain due to herniated discs.
In a change of medical diagnosis and procedure, he prescribed a medicine that was designed to alleviate depression and enhance appetite. For the first time in three months, I witnessed my mother-in –law eating a full sandwich, a cookie, and asking for more. As I observed her eating hungrily, I could not but interpret this sight as a minor miracle. A little pill brought this woman back to life. Perhaps the modern meaning of resurrection can be discovered in the power of a pill to reinvigorate a human being back to normal living from a condition of near death.
The pharmaceutical industry has come under heavy attack by those protesting unnecessary exorbitant costs. I can only fully agree with many of these objections. At the same time, we dare not ignore the depth of blessing bestowed upon humanity as a result of years of dedicated research and development by medical scientists the world over.
Today, I remind myself gratefully of the gift of science to all of us. Today, as I watch my wife’s smiles and my father-in-law’s return to a more joyful life, I gratefully express my thanks for living at a time when the miraculous is not an enemy of science but its intimate companion.