A newborn baby has 350 bones, but some are so soft and pliable that they hardly seem to be bones. Some of these bones fuse together as the baby grows, so that when he is fully grown the number is reduced to 206. It takes the foot, with its 26 bones, about 20 years to fully develop as one of the most distinctive parts of your whole body.
The arrangement of these 26 foot bones has been perfectly designed by the Creator to not only support your weight, but also to enable you to move about easily. This is important, because just in the normal pattern of activity, an adult walks about 65,000 miles during his lifetime (equivalent to two and a half times around the world).
Your foot’s perfectly designed arch works like a spring simultaneously with the bending of your knees and movement of the ankles and toes. Many of these bones are not strong in themselves, being only half the thickness of a pencil, yet the way they are arranged makes them strong enough to support a heavy person. If you had X-ray vision and could see through the skin of your foot, you would discover why these bones don’t break, even with all the rough treatment they get. The bones in the foot are attached to strong muscles by over 100 tendons, keeping them in place and working together with the muscles so that the workload is shared by all of them.
Not only are those parts of the foot kept in such remarkable order, but also, to further strengthen them, the whole wonderful package is kept in place by tape-like bands strapped over and around them. Then there are the important blood vessels bringing constant nourishment to all parts of the foot, as well as nerve endings that carry messages to and from the brain.
The principal purpose of our legs and feet is, of course, to carry our bodies wherever we need to go. And God in His Word, the Bible, reminds us to be careful where we let our feet take us. He instructs us to “make straight paths for your feet” (Hebrews 12:1313And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:13)).
If we are His children, through faith in Christ Jesus, the opening verses tell us what He has done for us. Another verse says, “Ponder [think about] the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established” (Proverbs 4:2626Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. (Proverbs 4:26)). These are important instructions if we are to live happy Christian lives, pleasing the Lord Jesus and helping those around us.
(to be continued)
ML-11/03/2013