Microscopic pathogens—such as deadly bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites—may be so small they cannot be seen, but they are everywhere. And what stands between you and these threats, to keep you alive and healthy? One of the great marvels of God’s design: the human immune system.
A short article such as this could never convey the wondrous whole of our immune system in all its glory, and it would be a complicated tale to tell. However, even a passing glance can serve to remind us that we are, indeed, “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Let’s take that glance.
PROTECTING FROM FRIENDLY FIRE
Even before you were born, your body was preparing for the daily battle it would wage after your birth. While you were in the womb, your body was creating the cells that would become a part of the vast apparatus of the human immune system, and as it did so, these cells were sampling the other healthy cells of your body, learning what you “look” like.
This “memory” aspect of the immune system is absolutely vital. Without the molecular machinery to accomplish this recognition, your own cells would fall prey to the weaponry of the immune system, like soldiers dying on the battlefield from “friendly fire.”