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An Unprecedented Manufacturing Facility
The centralized computer, the brain, regulates the manufacturing plant
which operates 24 hours a day 7 days a week. As the need rises and falls production increases
and decreases to keep a delicate balance of the various cells making up the blood. Let us
look at the red blood cell again.
There is an ever-changing need for oxygen as we sleep or exercise,
rest or think. The bone marrow will slow or speed production of these red cells to meet the
oxygen demand. However, red cells die after about 120 days and must be replaced.
In the time it takes to turn this page, your body will lose about
3 million red cells and your bone marrow will produce the same number. Red blood cell
production can be increased up to eight times if the need arises. Greater production
of cells means greater demand for oxygen. So great is the demand for oxygen (about 4
gallons per hour) that there are almost countless red blood cells in the body. If stacked,
they would reach 31,000 miles high. Yet they are so tiny, it would require 12,500 to measure
only one inch high.
There is even a recycling crew.
As red cells age and wear out they are broken down. Nearly all the
protein and iron is reused&emdash;a very efficient recycling procedure.
But none of these vehicles could travel on the red river without a pumping station.
Central Pumping Station
Blood circulation depends on a central pumping station that must work
24 hours a day, nonstop. Other muscles soon give out but the heart must keep on working
for a lifetime.
A single pause for no more than five minutes would result in death.
The heart, no larger than a fist, is divided into four chambers.
The left side receives blood into the top from the lungs and the bottom pumps it to all
parts of the body. The right side receives blood into the top and the bottom very gently
pumps it into the lungs.
Though its workload is tremendous, rarely does it fail except for some
reason other than itself. But if the heart is damaged, by an almost miraculous cooperation
many components immediately join forces, converging on the site. If the injury is not too great,
white blood cells clear away debris. Within weeks, scar tissue has replaced dead muscle and the
heart is patched with stiff, electrically inert fibers. Though the patch cannot contract, the
remainder of the heart goes on working, providing life to the body's cells.
If an artery becomes blocked, alternate routes are established.
Small new arteries, or collaterals, grow from branches above the blocked artery and
connect to small arteries below the blockage. While this level of protection varies,
tests have shown that in some instances normal blood flow to the heart is restored.
Controlled by the brain, the heart rate rises to meet our needs.
When we sleep the heart is working at its slowest pace. During exercise it speeds up to
supply more blood to the muscles as they burn more fuel. In extreme cases like responding
to a sudden threat of death, the heart may speed to a soaring 200 beats per minute, pumping
blood with its nutrients so the body and mind can spring into action.
A Thermostat in the Brain
The red river of life plays a vital role in maintaining body temperature
within very close tolerances. We would soon die if it rose only 90F above normal.
Body temperature is constantly monitored by a thermostat in the brain. Every cell is like a
tiny motor burning fuel and giving off heat, which increases with exercise. Infection or
exposure to excessive ambient temperature also increases body heat. When our body temperature
has raised only a fraction of a degree, our cooling mechanisms turn on-valves open and more
blood is directed to the skin, where the heat is rapidly dissipated, aided by the evaporation
of sweat.
On the other hand, if body temperature drops, the heart slows,
vessels in the skin are constricted and blood is rerouted to deeper paths away from the cold.
Were we to travel from sea level to the top of the highest mountain we
would be breathless and dizzy at first because of the lack of oxygen in the thinner air.
But our heartbeat would quicken and our bone marrow would increase its production of red
blood cells by as much as 50%. Soon we would have adapted to the new environment.
Blood in Scripture
While this red river of life is vital to life, it is only one small part
of the extraordinarily complex human body. Is it possible that the human body could be a
product of evolution? Surely every thinking individual would have to agree that it is
impossible. Surely the Hand that made us is Divine.
Is it any wonder that the Bible uses the term "blood" so many times
in reference to life? "…The life of the body is in the blood…." Blood was a symbol of
purification: "It is the blood that removes the sins, because it is life" (Lev. 17:11 NCV).
If our blood becomes contaminated, we become very sick and perhaps even die. It must always
be free of foreign substances. In the same way our inner life must be purified and cleansed
from sin.
Jesus used the symbol of the blood as giving eternal life when He said:
“My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood
live in me, and I live in them” (John 6:55-56 NCV). It was not His literal flesh and blood
they were to eat but the words He spoke. “Whoever eats this bread will live forever,”
He declared (John 6:58 NCV). Some were appalled by this statement, thinking He meant that
they must eat His literal flesh and drink His literal blood. So He explained: “It is the
Spirit that gives life. The flesh doesn't give life. The words I told you are spirit, and
they give life” (John 6:63 NCV).
Under the law of Moses, blood sacrifices were required. Over and over
the people were reminded that the life was in the blood. Jesus explained that the blood
represents the words He spoke, the words given Him from the Father.
After having seen how the blood works to supply nutrients and to clean
and purify, can't we better understand the use of it as a symbol of purification from sin in
both the Old and New Testaments?
To partake of the eternal blessings, we too, must drink Christ's blood and
eat His flesh, that is, take in His every word and apply it to our lives, until we have become
cleansed from sin.
References
Moody Video, “Red River of Life,” ©1957, 1986 and 1998.
The Incredible Machine by National Geographic Society.
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 CD
North Carolina State University Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
The Franklin Institute On-Line, on: The Heart, Vessels and Blood
University of Tasmania, Faculty of Health and Science
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