Last night I woke up early and found myself in a semi-fetal position with my hand pressed against my shoulder. As I tried to get back to sleep I could feel my pulse. I laid there for a while, thinking maybe the feeling would pass but it soon became a distraction. So I decided I better change positions—but before I could I suddenly began to realize that the beat was coming from my heart.
Now I know that’s no revelation to you. Every living person has a heartbeat resulting in a pulse, but for some reason I began to notice the number of beats. They were strong and steady and in perfect rhythm. Then I began to think about our God who made the human heart that makes the beats that keeps me alive (and sometimes awake).
The human heart. What an amazing organ. It’s the prime mover for every part of our bodies. The heart is a muscle that pumps blood throughout the body via the circulatory system, supplying oxygen and nutrients to the tissues and removing carbon dioxide and other wastes. The tissues of the body need a constant supply of nutrition in order to be active. Without it, of course, we can’t live and when it stops, life on this earth is over.
But then my thoughts took a different direction than that obvious conclusion. I began to wonder just how many beats my heart has produced since I was born, without ever getting tired. Well, here is a dynamic that may surprise you. In just a couple of months I will have completed, Lord willing, my 84th year on this earth.
That means that since birth my heart will have beat (based on an average pulse rate of 72 beats per minute), a total of (72 beats per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 24 hours per day x 365 days per year x 84 years) or 3,178,828,000 times. That’s right, over 3 billion times!
Now, I know that one of these days that heart beat will stop for a moment in time and life on this earth for me will be over. The same will happen to you. But did you know that God has promised in His word that if we know and believe in His Son Jesus Christ, that our hearts will restart as soon as we enter into His heavenly realm and it will beat forever? There are many promises of that in Scripture (John 3:16, 11:25-26) of course, but let me share with you one of my favorites from Psalm 73:25-26:
“Though my health may fail and my spirit may grow weak, God remains the strength of my heart. He is mine forever.”
What a promise. I’ll remember that next time it happens again in the middle of the night and I’ll let the steady beats put me back to sleep in peace. Thank you, God. Maranatha!
