Packages of Life

In January 1983 (14 years before we started Illustra Media), a coworker at Moody Institute of Science stopped me in the hallway of our production facility to tell me about ”a really interesting” object he’d found in a forest near his home. I followed him to his office where he handed me the source of his enthusiasm … a pinecone.

As I examined the six-inch vessel, I tried hard to mask the fact that I was totally unimpressed. Then my friend launched into an explanation of the cone’s abilities. Little did I know that his words would have a profound impact on both my career as a filmmaker and my fascination with the creative power of God. That pinecone I had initially thought so little of was about to become the star of the first science documentary I would ever produce.

Fast-forward 36 years to November 2019. My wife and I were hiking near Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains. Joni paused next to a fairly nondescript tree, looked up and spotted the same type of cone I’d been introduced to more than three decades earlier. I knew immediately this story would make a terrific addition to our new video series, 2-MINUTE WONDERS and WONDER–FULL LIFE.

In November, I made several trips back up to Lake Arrowhead to photograph the knobcone pine trees. Jerry Harned and I then wrote and edited the video in early December.  On a personal level, few films have been more meaningful to me than this one. An extraordinary cone ignited my career when its biological engineering kindled a flame within me to document the evidence for intelligent design throughout the natural world. That fire is still crackling in 2020.

I won’t spoil the remarkable story in PACKAGES OF LIFE by sharing the details. It’s much more powerful when you watch the wonder unfold in all its glory. So, watch PACKAGES OF LLIFE, then look and be amazed … the same way I was so many years ago. Remember, some of life’s greatest wonders come wrapped in very ordinary packages.