Family trees and legacies

Yesterday my therapist and I were talking about family trees and that took me too legacies. As you get older you begin to think about what you started with and what you leave behind. That got me thinking about genetics.

Pedigrees are trees that show how certain traits have descended through your family. Before we get into inheritance lets talks about genes and the amazing chromosome. Did you know that God used five base pairs to create all the diversity found in EVERY single living organism. These base pairs are arranged in a structure called a codon which consists of three base pairs. This means that on the smallest level every living creature is made of three, I find it interesting that every spiritual creature is also composed of three: the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Okay so the DNA which is made up of codons lives in the nucleus at the heart of the cell. mRNA comes into the nucleus and makes a complimentary mirror copy of the original, Sounds alot like when God made man in His image doesn't it?T his process is called transcription. The m in mRNA stands for messenger and God's creation also had several messengers but the most significant of course was Jesus.

The mRNA leaves the cell and goes to the ribosomes in the cytoplasm to build proteins with the help of other types of RNAs. This process is called translation and this is what we do as we walk out the new life inside of us expressing our faith to the best of our abilities, the other RNAs affect our expression of our faith. We all know people that build our faith and people that tear it down. 

But there's more to it. The genes that were copied from the DNA are called exons or expressed genes, in between those genes are introns.

Introns have diverse functions beyond simply separating protein-coding regions. Introns promote gene expression this means they decide which exons are turned on an off to be copied. They can decide when in life a gene is expressed. This means they directly effect gene expression, They can also do this by facilitating alternative splicing, regulating RNA stability and translation and acting as precursors for non-coding RNAs which transfers the image from nucleus to cytoplasm and finally by providing a genomic space for evolution through mechanisms like exon shuffling and gene duplication.

We are not left with what we start with. There are internal mechanisms that can evolve (literally change over time) our faith. What is that mechanism - the Holy Spirit. This is why it is so essential to not grieve the Holy Spirit but rather to work with Him.

But there's more, epigenetics which literally means upon the gene. Epigenetics studies how behaviors and an the environment can affect gene activity either by changing the underlying DNA sequences. It involves chemical modifications to DNA and associated proteins (histones) (see inflammation in the last post) that act like tags to either silence genes (compressing the DNA so they can't be copied) or activating them (decompressing there), so they can be copied thereby controlling gene expression. These changes can influence health, development, and traits, and are sometimes reversible, with diet, stress, and other environmental factors playing significant roles. What are the spiritual equivalents; prayer, worship, community, studying the Word of God, exercising your spiritual gifts and, fasting to name a few. If your body has the proteins but doesn't have the co-factors traits are not expressed and we do not operate in fullness.

The lesson is it does not matter what you started with as a foundation, God has several mechanisms both internal and external to change how what you started with is expressed in you life today,  and we have apart to play.

Health and Disease:.
These changes can influence health outcomes and are linked to various conditions, including cancers, respiratory illnesses, and neurobehavioral disorders.

Complex Traits:
It helps explain how genes don't solely determine outcomes, as environmental factors can switch genes on or off, impacting health and behavior

Since environment, health and lifestyle influence epigenetics we can assume that the same influence our spiritual development So we must consider our spiritual health and the environments we put ourselves in or it will impact how Gid can shape us.

 

 



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