Advent & The Microscope - Day 1: Unseen Hope

What a paper microscope and mint leaves taught me about unseen hope.

From December 1st thru the 25th, I will be working through the Advent book “Be Magnified” which is a free resource developed by a group I started called the Science Communicators of Faith. It is designed to be used alongside the Foldscope microscope, a pocket-sized paper microscope that magnifies up to 140x. Each day I will share a scripture and short prompt from the book. Join me this advent!

Scripture: “For we are saved through hope, but hope that is seen is not hope, for why does a man still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:24-25, NKJV

Prompt: What is one of the smallest things you can see without the help of a magnifying glass or microscope? Try taking a closer look at it with your Foldscope. Some things require magnification to see them or to see them more completely. What might God be trying to teach you about hope in this activity?

Today’s Thoughts & Specimen: Today, I decided to look at something from my spice rack. That seemed like something small enough for me to see with my unaided eye, yet perfect to view under the Foldscope to look more closely. I grabbed Spice Islands dried mint leaves as my first sample. I contemplated grabbing Montreal Steak seasoning first, because I wanted something colorful to look at, but last second I decided to go with something leafy rather than mineral looking. I was excited to see my sample under the microscope!

I held my sample up to the light eagerly waiting to see it. But I soon realized that my sample was not transparent enough even with light. The pieces of mint were too thick. I finagled and adjusted my “slide” many times, only to see the same thick leafy blobs. I became discouraged. I found myself wishing that I had chosen another sample as my first, perhaps the steak seasoning.

I kept looking though. I held my sample up to the light long enough for my hands, neck, and eyes to get tired from straining to see something. I almost decided to complete this entry using a pre-made explorer card with a sample of mold instead. In fact, I did look at the mold, and it was much easier to see the sample. It was even stained in a beautiful blue color - I could even make out some of the hyphae.

Even so, I decided to give my mint sample one more try. This time, I saw a little more than leafy blobs. I could make out tiny patterns and shapes on the edge of a mint leaf! It was then that I realized the issue wasn’t necessarily that the mint sample was too thick.

Rather, it was difficult for me to see a single part of the mint sample because the sample wasn’t flat - it had dimension to it - there was space between the clear stickers I used to sandwich my sample between. Essentially, if I wanted to capture a clear picture of my sample, I would need to take multiple pictures at different planes and compile them together in what’s called a “z-stack photo.”

I wonder if hope is a lot like a z-stack. We only see in parts, in planes. God sees the whole z-stack image and we have to wait patiently for those parts, planes we don’t yet see.

As someone who spent a lot of time capturing microscopy data in graduate school, especially confocal microscopy z-stack images, it made sense. I could only see in one plane at a time if I wanted to capture a single photo. I took a video instead, which was perfect.

Watch the video below. As I shift closer to or farther from the sample, some parts of it come into better focus, but not all of it, at least not all at once.

I wonder if hope is a lot like a z-stack. We only see in parts, in planes. God sees the whole z-stack image, and we are waiting patiently for those parts, planes we don’t yet see to come into focus. In my work with confocal microscopy, it is only when the images are compiled and stacked that the sample can be more completely seen. Not just in one dimension, but multiple dimensions. Certainly some food for thought. For now, I certainly learned an exercise in patience and persistence with my sample today. What did you learn?