What makes the food that almost all animals eat? Where does the oxygen come from that we need to survive?  The answer is plants.  In every plant in your house, yard, or in the world, a chemical reaction is taking place that is so amazing that it is almost like a miracle.  The name of tis chemical reaction is photosynthesis, which takes place mostly in the leaves of plants.  Through photosynthesis, energy is produced that is used to either directly or indirectly make every food that we eat.  There are no exceptions!  (Salt is not a food because it has no calories in it. It is classified as a mineral.)

What about pizza?  How could that come from plants?  Look at the ingredients used in pizza.  The crust is made from ground up wheat seed.  Wheat is a plant.  The sauce is made from tomatoes, a plant.  Onions, peppers, olives, etc., are all plants.  Mushrooms feed on decaying plants.  The meat on the pizza comes from animals that eat grass or foods from plants (e.g. corn).  Even the spices used to season the pizza come from plants.  The cheese comes from the milk of animals that eat grass or other plant materials.  Yes, pizza comes from plants!  We just take what has been made and mix it, cook it, and shape it, but it all started with photosynthesis.  The same is true of every food we eat.

The more we study photosynthesis the more awed we are by what we find.  Here is a simplified chemical equation for photosynthesis which occurs in the chloroplasts, plant cells that contain chlorophyll.

carbon dioxide (CO2) + water (H2O) + energy from sunlight -->

sugars (C6H12O6)+oxygen (O2)+water (H2O)

From two relatively simple compounds (carbon dioxide and water), and using chlorophyll, which reacts to the energy from sunlight.  God created a complex process that produces sugars and oxygen.  The energy from the sugars is used to feed the plant and to directly or indirectly produce all of the food that we and almost all animals eat.  Nearly all life depends on this process to survive.

This is not the end of the story.  Not only do plants make food, but they also make oxygen that we must have to survive.  In photosynthesis, God set up a recycling program to replace the oxygen that is used when things decay, where there is combustion, or when we use energy to fuel our body's processes.  All of these produce carbon dioxide.  Plants take this carbon dioxide and use it to make food and oxygen which helps to keep carbon dioxide at the right levels.

A diagram of this recycling program would look something like the one below.

Could photosynthesis or the recycling program have happened by chance or accident?  It is far too complex for this to be an accident.  Only an all-wise Creator could have designed something so amazing.  There are many more awe-inspiring examples of how God has made it possible for life to exist on this earth.

Editor's Note: We have many of these examples in our series of materials titled Dandy Designs.

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