Warnings Written Into Creation

In Episode 2 of Law & Order, Inez Reyes explores the truth that everything in creation operates according to law. Through the deeply personal story of her mother's battle with kidney disease and her own journey toward understanding health, she examines the laws of cause and effect, seasons, sowing and reaping, body rhythms, and spiritual consequence. This reflective episode invites listeners to consider how God's design for life—especially through nutrition, rest, and wisdom—may hold answers hidden in plain sight. Sometimes the greatest lessons come from the warnings we almost missed.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

The loss of a parent is lost. But if I'm honest, the deepest pain I can really regard my mother isn't that she died. The deepest pain is the realization that I didn't have to lose her at all. Now, before you misunderstand me, I'm not suggesting there was some magical cure sitting on a shelf waiting to save her. Life is rarely that simple. But years after her death, I began learning things about nutrition, disease, and the body's remarkable ability to heal when given what it needs. And with every new thing I learned, one question kept returning. What if we had known sooner? My mother was warned for years, we are worried about your kidneys and heart, Gaetha. Those were the words her doctor spoke long before the dialysis, long before the transplant, and long before we planned her funeral. But like many mothers, she kept going. She was raising children, working, serving others, living life. And because consequence often moves slowly, it is easy to believe we have more time than we actually do. Today I want to talk about a law that governs everything in creation. The law of cause and effect, not gravity, not seasons, though both operate by law. I mean the simple reality that every cause eventually produces an effect. Every seed produces a harvest. Every choice creates a trajectory. Every habit shapes a future, and our health is no exception. Welcome to Law and Order. I'm Inez Reyes. Today's episode is called Warnings Written into Creation. We're exploring how God built this principle into every part of life, from the garden to our bodies to our spiritual lives, because everything in creation operates according to law. And understanding those laws may be one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and the people we love. One of the greatest deceptions in life is believing that consequences arrive immediately. Most do not. If you plant a tomato seed today, you won't harvest tomatoes tomorrow. If you neglect the garden for a week, little changes. Neglect it for several weeks, and eventually all your plants are going to die, and your harvest will disappear. Health works similarly. Many chronic illnesses develop over years or even decades. The body often whispers before it screams, and that was certainly true in my mother's story. Years before kidney failure, there were warnings. Years before dialysis, there were symptoms. Years before the transplant, doctors had concerns about both her kidneys and her heart. The effects were visible long before the crisis arrived. But because the consequences came slowly, life simply continued. And perhaps that's why so many of us struggle. Because modern culture teaches us to pay attention to emergencies rather than causes. We treat symptoms. God's system often addresses causes. And that brings me to something I learned years after my mother's death. Dr. Max Gerson was actually searching for relief from debilitating migraines when he began studying the relationship between nutrition and disease. What started as a personal search eventually grew into a broader belief that the body possesses remarkable healing abilities when supplied with proper nourishment. Whether one agrees with all of his conclusions or not, his work forced me to ask a question. How much power have we underestimated in the foods God created? Today, researchers continue to study plant-rich diets and their impact on chronic disease, inflammation, cardiovascular health, and kidney health. Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, kale, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and collardreens contain compounds that scientists have found may support detoxification pathways, reduce oxidative stress, and promote cellular health when consumed raw. And every time I read another study, every time I learn another lesson, the ache returns. Not anger, there's no bitterness, just ache. The ache of wondering, what if we had known? And that is where only Jesus can bring healing. Because none of us can rewrite yesterday. We cannot change the decisions we made with the knowledge we had. But we can learn and we can grow. And we can share what we've discovered with those still walking the road. One of the most beautiful laws God established is the law of seasons. Spring does not argue with winter, summer does not rush autumn. The seasons, they just simply arrive according to design. Everything God created operates by a rhythm. Day and night, planting and harvest, work and rest, even our bodies operate by rhythm. Our hormones function according to rhythm, our digestive system functions according to rhythm, our sleeping cycles function according to rhythm, our organs, they function also according to rhythm, and yet modern life often teaches us to ignore rhythm. We eat on the run, sleep less, stress more, work longer, move less, we have become experts at overriding signals. We are tired but keep going, stressed but keep pushing, overwhelmed but keep performing, and eventually the body begins speaking louder. What begins as fatigue becomes chronic fatigue. What begins as occasional dizziness becomes something more serious. What begins as inflammation becomes disease. The body keeps records, not because it is working against us, but because it is working according to law. I often wonder how many warnings my mother's body gave before the doctors finally told her they were concerned about her kidneys and heart. How many signals did she dismiss because there were children to raise? How many symptoms were ignored because life demanded attention elsewhere? The reality is that most women are not intentionally harming themselves. They are simply trying to survive. And survival often comes at the expense of rhythm. Years after my mother's death, I began studying nutrition more seriously. Not because I wanted to become a nutrition expert, but because I desperately wanted answers. I was aging and noticing things about my own health. I wanted to understand why disease developed. I wanted to understand why some people recover while others decline. And most of all, I wanted to understand whether there was anything I could learn that might help me remain healthy for my daughters. One thing that repeatedly appeared in the research was the power of plant foods. Even while reading The Enzyme Advantage by Dr. Howard F. Loomis Jr., I learned that a German doctor named Edward Howell made his life work about food enzymes, and he learned that the process of heating foods killed the enzymes our bodies needed for digestion and metabolism. Any amount of heat kills enzymes, even if only steaming for 10 minutes. Dr. Howell went so far to say that slow or fast baking or broiling, stewing and frying all destroy 100% of the enzymes in the food. So what is it that is in raw cruciferous vegetables that gives us this healing power? Particularly your broccoli, your kale, your cabbage, your cauliflower, and collard greens. Vegetables, many of us grew up pushing around our plates. Researchers have identified compounds within these foods that appear to help support the body's natural detoxification systems, reduce oxidative stress, and promote healthy cellular function. It fascinates me that some of the most powerful tools available to us are found in our food. They're not exotic, not expensive, not hidden behind a paywall, simply growing from the ground God created. I think about that often. How God designed a world where many of the things we need are freely available fresh air, sunlight, water, movement, plants, rest, trust. These are not modern inventions, they are ancient gifts. The more I study health, the more I become convinced that God understood the body long before science began catching up. That doesn't mean medicine doesn't have a place. It does. But we also have a responsibility to study and to be educated about our bodies. My own health crisis taught me something I will never forget. Symptoms are often invitations to look deeper. When my iron levels dropped to a dangerously low level, I began studying nutrition, absorption, enzymes, and the body's God-given ability to repair and rebuild. That experience convinced me that knowledge is one of the most powerful gifts we can give ourselves and those we love. I believe God has called us to become wise stewards of the bodies He has given us. And stewardship begins with understanding. There is something I have to be honest about. When I share my mother's story, people sometimes assume the sadness comes from losing her. But that isn't the deepest pain. The deepest pain is wondering whether it had to happen. Not because I think there was a guaranteed cure, not because I believe every disease can be reversed, but because knowledge changes choices, and choices shape outcomes. The ache comes from wondering what might have happened if we had known more, if we had understood more, if we had asked different questions, if we had paid closer attention. That ache stayed with me for years. But over time Jesus has been teaching me something. Regret cannot heal yesterday. Only grace can. I cannot go back and hand my mother the information I have now. I cannot relive those conversations. I cannot rewrite her story. But I can honor her story. I can learn from it. I can share what I am learning with others, and perhaps help another daughter keep her mother a little longer, or help another mother remain healthy enough to watch her children grow. That is why I continue studying. That is why I continue learning. Because pain redeemed becomes purpose. There is another law operating in creation, spiritual consequence, not punishment, consequence. Every choice moves us toward something. Trust moves us toward peace. Bitterness moves us toward bondage. Forgiveness moves us toward freedom. Fear moves us toward anxiety. Faith moves us toward rest. We often think spiritual laws are separate from physical laws, but they are deeply connected. Chronic stress affects the body. Fear affects the body. Hopelessness affects the body. Isolation affects the body. The Creator designed us as a whole being, body, mind, and spirit. And when one suffers, the others often suffer as well. This is why God's laws are never arbitrary. They are not restrictions designed to limit joy. They are instructions designed to preserve life. The same God who established the law of harvest established the law of rest. The same God who created digestion created Sabbath. The same God who designed broccoli designed prayer. And all of it points toward life. Before we close today, I want to leave you with a simple challenge. This week, choose one thing that moves you toward life. Please don't choose ten things. Not a complete life overhaul, just one thing. Maybe it's adding a serving of raw leafy greens to your day. Maybe it's drinking more water. Maybe it's taking a walk. Maybe it's going to bed 30 minutes earlier. Maybe it's spending ten minutes with God before the noise of the day begins. Just one thing. One small act of agreement with the way God designed life to function. Because healing rarely begins with dramatic changes. More often it begins with simple daily decisions. And perhaps that is the greatest lesson my mother's story has taught me. I cannot change her story, but I surely can change mine. And maybe by sharing what I've learned, I can help someone else change theirs. Because everything in creation operates by law. And God's laws were never meant to imprison us, they were meant to preserve us. I'm grateful for what I know now, grateful that I can use that knowledge to care for my own health, grateful that I can be here for my daughters, and grateful that God can redeem even our deepest regrets. The greatest pain isn't losing my mother. The greatest pain is realizing I may not have had to lose her at all. But even that ache can become a gift when it leads us to learn, to grow, and to help others avoid the same road. And just as a farmer plants seeds today for a harvest he may not see for months, we can begin planting seeds of health, wisdom, and faith today. Trusting God with the harvest. I'm Inez Reyes, and this is Law and Order.