Humpty Dumpty was Pushed

Blog readers,
Have you heard of the bumber sticker that says "Humpty Dumpty was pushed." Well that is a hint about the picture in my blog banner! All the guesses were very good, I thought, because they all had some aspect of the real answer. Sarah and Mia were right the picture was of cells. Colleen was right about it being a joint and El Esposo was on the right track about it being a break.

So what is it already!!!

It is a picture of leaf cells. The red part shows cells called scissor cells that grow and push the leaf stem away from joint between leaf and branch. When there are enough cells it causes the leaves to break off and fall. Interesting, huh? (If you want to read about it, here is the article on NPR.) I just love how effective living things are when you know the science behind it! Whereas some people think science competes with belief in God, I think a strong argument could be made that the beauty, effectiveness, efficiency, etc. of the world that has been uncovered by science is evidence of God.

Thinking about these leaves being pushed off of the tree reminds me of another realization that I had about a long held belief of mine. It also involves falling and pushing. You always hear about parent birds pushing the baby birds out out of the nest. Well, about 10 or 11 years ago we were lucky enough to have a hummingbird build a nest in a tree right outside our kitchen window. It was January when we discovered it and the tree was getting pretty bare. I was really worried because the hummingbirds were obviously sitting on eggs and it was way too early! Birds don't reproduce in January! Anyway, it worked out fine and we had great fun with the binoculars, watching the babies grow from our kitchen window. But I discovered that the babies get so big that they can't fit in the nest anymore. I think they push each other out! I could just picture them.
"Mom, she's toooooooouuuuuuuching me!"
"Am not!"
"Are too"
"Stay on your side!"
"Your the one on my side, lard butt!"
"Scoot OVER buffalo wings!"
"OOOOOPS!"

"Hey, I'm flying!"