Sermon Illustrations
We Need Some Young Blood Around Here
We have all heard the saying, "What we really need is some new blood around here." Usually, that phrase is said in the context of actual space—church, work, community. But now scientists are putting that phrase into our bodily lives. Scientists are trying to prove that we can reverse the aging process by putting young blood into older people. Saul Villeda, a PhD student at Stanford in 2008, studied mice brains from old mice that had young blood pumped into their bodies. He found that the "Old mice that received young blood experienced a burst of brain cell growth in the hippocampus"—that's usually the first part of our brain to deteriorate as we get older (think of think your memory failing.) Now the Stanford School of Medicine, in 2014, launched a human trial where "infusions of blood plasma from young people are being given to people with Alzheimer's disease."
Possible Preaching Angle:
For all of history people have been searching for immortality or the ability to live just a little longer. What is amazing is that eternal life is found in blood, but it matters whose blood that is!