Somethings Are Best Left Alone

“Let sleeping dogs lie,” “don’t poke the bear,” “leave well alone,” or “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” are all common proverbs that, if followed, might just save your life! We poke fun with these at times, but these have become common phrases we use to warn others that they are about to go too far.  Once they cross the line, it is too late to turn back, the damage has been done and the carnage begins.  Of course, the use of the word “carnage” is an extreme, but I could not help but think of these common warnings when I heard about what scientists claim to have done with the long extinct dire wolf. Yes, the one from Game of Thrones.

Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences announced this week that they genetically engineered dire wolves from extinction.   Ben Lamm, co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences told reporters, "We took a 13,000-year-old tooth and a 72,000-year-old skull, and made puppies."  With the help of a little edited grey wolf DNA, Romulus and Remus were born on October 1 last year, Khaleesi (their sister) on January 30.  Colossal used the gene-editing method called CRISPR to edit the grey wolf's genome to more closely resemble that of a dire wolf and all the pups came out white as snow and ready to go.  Go to do what, is the question? Back in 2019 you might remember a Chinese court sending a scientist to jail for three years for using the technology to produce the world's first gene-edited babies. This whole thing gives me Jurassic Park vibes, and not the good first part of the book herbivore kind. I’m thinking more end of the movie T-Rex chomping down on the Velociraptor as the park banner comes crashing down, and the humans run for their lives, type of vibes!

There is something to be said about advances in science.  I am a firm believer that God allows people to discover things that help advance His cause through medicines and procedures, but there are somethings that are best left in the past.  The dire wolf has been the source of mythical fear for a reason and I believe went extinct for a reason.  Does God want us messing around with these things? I don’t know, but obviously He has allowed it in this case.  I like the way The Living Bible translates Ecclesiastes 3- There is a right time for everything: A time to be born; A time to die. Sometimes it’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie.  Okay, I made up that last part, but seriously, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

The article goes on to say that back in March the scientists were inspired by the fact that they were able to edit lab mice into what they called a “woolly mouse.”  They took woolly mammoth genes and mixed with mice genes to produce a “gene edited” mouse with bushy fur. The whole experiment is in hopes to use Asian Elephant DNA to resurrect woolly mammoths. They had raised $435 million at that point, now it’s reported to be worth $10.2 billion. It looks like there is no limit, but should there be? We all know there always is a limit and when we mess with the natural order of things, we have a habit of making things much worse.

God has allowed us to do some amazing things, but we must remember that life belongs to Him and Him alone.  I pause in amazement and thankfulness, while at the same time being reminded that all good things come from Him and in His time.  As the old hymn goes: To God be the glory! Great things He has taught us, great things He has done.  I hope we have been paying attention and learned the lesson in this season of discovery!  

Serving the Savior,
Bro. Jonathan