This is part two of a series on the amazing human body that God created for us. For the first installation, see here.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him
nothing was made that was made. John 1.3
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You wouldn’t want me doing surgery on your heart, but I am going to attempt to give my basic understanding of how the heart operates – kind of.
It’s been said that the heart is one of the strongest muscles in your body. A muscle that works hard for you even as you are sleeping.
The heart, which consists of cardiac muscle, is said to be the hardest working muscle in the body. The average adult heart beats 72 times a minute; 100,000 times a day; 3,600,000 times a year; and 2.5 billion times during a 70-year span. This is a great example of dynamic strength as well as strength endurance.[i]
My grandson asked me why the heart keeps on beating the way it does. I had to tell him, “If it doesn’t, we die.”
Inundated with carbon dioxide, our used blue blood, which
Diagram from http://www.newhealthadvisor.coml
has cycled through our body, enters the heart through the large Superior Vena Cava (from the upper body) and Inferior Vena Cava (from the lower body) veins, into the Right Atrium of the heart.
Then the blood passes through a valve, into the Right Ventricle before passing through another valve, through the Left and Right Pulmonary Arteries into each lung. Once the blood flows through the lungs, picking up needed oxygen, it is ready to return to the heart through the Pulmonary Veins into the Left Atrium. Traveling though another valve, the blood enters the Left Ventricle. Then through another valve it makes its finale by traveling through the vast Aorta.
From the Aorta, the oxygenated blood travels through the branches of hundreds of vessels into the whole of the body, giving oxygen and nutrition to every organ, limb and extremity of the body. Because of the faithfulness of the heart, the brain, bones, muscles, skin and vital organs are supplied with the needed blood.
Of all the things that strike me about the heart, the valves are some of the most interesting. When I saw the diagram of the heart for the first time in many years, I thought about plumbing, not just the plumbing in humans but the plumbing done by humans.
You may recognize that the valves of the heart are basically check valves. When properly functioning, they compel the blood to flow forward but never backward.
The Romans may have been the first to implement this concept in their plumbing systems:
Diagram from http://www.reefaquarium.com
There is … evidence of the use of angular valves, mixing valves and also check valves for avoiding back flow.[ii]
We humans make most of our best inventions by imitating what God shows us in nature. The making of the check valve does just that.
God’s ways are mighty and awesome. When we delve into the heart that God made for each one of us, we see amazing design, structure and intelligence. God, our creator did a glorious thing when he made our hearts. Let us now turn to him as our Savior and Lord – the Lord Jesus Christ.[iii]
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