“Only fear the Lord, and serve Him...with all your heart; for consider how
The Heart and Blood
Considering all the work it does, the twelve-ounce heart doesn't take up much room in the center of our chests. It is the hardest working part of our bodies, and life would not be possible without it. For instance, it pumps throughout our bodies an estimated 650,000 gallons of blood every year, and the energy required for just one hour's worth of pumping would be enough to lift a sixty-five-ton weight a foot above the ground!
The heart beats approximately seventy times each minute—over 100,000 times a day. It is truly a perpetual-motion wonder, working moment-by-moment and day-by-day without any instructions from its owner.
The blood flowing through many miles of arteries, veins and capillaries is made up of sixty trillion red and white cells in an adult. The duty of the red cells is to carry oxygen to every part of the body and at the same time pick up carbon dioxide, a waste product that would prove deadly if left there too long. The white cells help defend the body against disease and infection.
Where do the red cells pick up the fresh oxygen they distribute throughout the body, and what do they do with the waste carbon dioxide they pick up? This is where the lungs enter the picture. After the blood has made its rounds, it is sidetracked to the lungs before returning to the heart to begin another trip. When the breath of air you inhale reaches the lungs, its oxygen is turned over to the blood that needs it badly but has become loaded with carbon dioxide. The lungs also remove this carbon dioxide, which is discharged into the air each time you exhale—eventually reaching trees and vegetation, which require carbon dioxide to live.
The blood, thus treated, passes on to the heart to be pumped along for another round-trip. Isn't this a wonderful arrangement? It is again something that only the Creator could plan and use in the maintenance of life, both among humans as well as animals and birds.
Perhaps at some later time we will review the digestive process to see how the food and liquids we take in are used in the body, passing from mouth to stomach for first treatment, then on to other body parts in the digestive system—blood playing a very important part in this too.
Meanwhile, let what we have considered in these three articles help us to appreciate more deeply the wonders of God's creation of the human body and His continuing care and love for each of us, as the Bible tells us, “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward” (Psalm 40:55Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. (Psalm 40:5)).
ML-04/13/2008