Your body has more than two hundred bones (not counting teeth). You may think your bones are hard and solid, but they contain about 25% water and 30% organic matter, plus important minerals such as phosphate, magnesium, iron and salts. Bones form the framework of your body, storing these minerals and distributing them in just the right amounts to help keep every part of your body healthy.
Your bones also have blood vessels, nerves and marrow inside them—all extremely important. Many of these bones are quite porous to keep them light, yet still strong. What a wonderful designer and provider our Creator is!
The pituitary gland, located at the base of the skull, controls the growth of the bones as well as other organs and functions in the body. Without its controlling hormones, one arm might be longer than the other, legs would not match, and fingers and toes would grow to different sizes and lengths.
Did you ever stop to think that your hand, with its nineteen bones, is far superior to the “hands” of animals or birds? Your four, flexible fingers and thumb make it possible to firmly grasp, pull or push objects and to operate mechanical and musical instruments. Just think how your eight wrist bones provide strength and enable you to bend your hands backward, forward or sideways. And how wonderful the thumb is! Just try tying a knot or using a hammer, a saw, a needle or a pair of scissors without it.
Your feet are another display of the Creator’s wisdom. Ankle bones extend backward to form the heel, while others go forward to make the sole and toes. This arrangement helps you to keep your balance. The arch of your foot, which is flexible and strong, absorbs the pounding that takes place when walking or running. If it were not designed this way, the rest of your body could not stand the shock. Incidentally, the muscles in your back also automatically keep you in balance, but if your back, legs and feet were not provided with proper bones, you would not be able to stand at all.
These are just a few of the ways our bodies remind us of how the Lord God has provided for us. The psalmist said, “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!” (Psalm 139:1717How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! (Psalm 139:17)).
Our thoughts toward the Lord Jesus should certainly be full of thanksgiving. It was His great love that made Him die on the cross so that, through faith in Him, we might have our sins forgiven. The invitation to us is, “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (Psalm 95:66O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. (Psalm 95:6)). Have you ever stopped to think of this great love and thanked Him for it?
ML-12/27/2009