Your Marvelous Machine

Your body is a marvelous machine.

Put the right stuff into your mouth, and your body changes it, mixes it, and uses it to make just what you need to live well.

Do you know exactly what is inside you? Where it is and what it does? Do you know how to make it work? Of course not! You would not be able to survive if you had to order your liver to work, your heart to beat, and your stomach to digest your food—all at once!

Yet your whole body works without a thought from you. It greases your joints, washes your “windows,” mends itself, plus a whole lot more. It's a marvelous machine, and it's yours. It's designed just for you by God.

Automatic Window Washers

Nobody likes dirty windows. You can't see through them. So you wash them.

It's the same with your eyes. If you have dirt in your eyes, you won’t be able to see where you're going. But you don’t have to wash your eyes, do you? They wash themselves!

You blink without even knowing it every two to 10 seconds. Each time you blink, tears bathe your eyes to keep them clean and moist.

When you get a speck of dirt in your eye, your tears work overtime. Your eye waters like crazy until the dirt washes out. Then you wipe the tears away with a tissue and get on with life.

Like almost everything else in your body, tears have a little something extra. In this case it's called lysozyme, and it's a germ killer. Lysozyme automatically deactivates most germs and viruses within five minutes of the time they hit your eyeballs. Without lysozyme in your tears, you could go blind from an eye infection.

Did you ever think about that? Probably not. But don't worry. You don't have to. Your automatic window washers and their super cleaning fluid are all part of your marvelous machine.

Your turn: Try to keep your eyes open without blinking for one full minute. Can you do it? Do tears form anyway?

Perfect Thermostat

What temperature should your body be? What temperature is it now? Should you cool it? Heat it? Do you know how?

Your hypothalamus does. That's the part of your brain that controls your body temperature (among other things). It's your body's thermostat. If you're too cold, it turns up the heat by making you shiver. If you're too hot, it makes you sweat. It's more complicated than that, but you get the idea.

You're alive and comfortable, right? Then your thermostat is working perfectly.

Your Skin Knitter

What do you do when you have a rip in your clothes? You ask someone to mend it or you sew it together yourself, right?

How about a cut or a scratch that makes you bleed? Nine times out of 10 you don't have to sew it or go in for repair. Wash the area and cover it to keep it clean. Then wait.

First, white cells in your blood will rush to the cut. They fight germs that try to get in. Then platelets in your blood clump together to close the leak. Then a scab forms to cover and protect the torn skin.

Beneath the scab, a miracle happens. Your skin mends itself! It grows together; it “knits” itself back together, and stops knitting when the tear is repaired.

Scientists can tell you in more detail what happens. Each thing happens in order and at just the right time. It's really complicated and very finely tuned.

The jist of it is this: you have a perfect skin knitter, created by God, who knit you together before you were born (see Psalm 139).

Joint Juice

Got a door that squeaks or is hard to open? What do you do about it?

Most adults will tell you, “Spray the hinges with WD-40” –that’s a type of grease. Presto! The “frozen” parts move again. Parts that rub together need to be greased to keep them working smoothly.

Think about this for a minute: Got a knee that won't bend? A finger that won't curl? A shoulder that's frozen in place? Probably not. That's because your body greases its joints. It actually makes its own "WD-40.”

It's called synovial fluid. It's thick and stringy like a raw egg white, and it greases many of your joints. Automatically. Before they freeze up or refuse to work.

Synovial fluid is one of the most important fluids found in your body. Imagine for a minute that none of your joints were greased. You couldn't walk, use your hands, talk, or even eat. Thank God for your joint juice!

Try this: Tape all your fingers on one hand together at the joints. You shouldn't be able to bend them. Try to live that way for one full day.

Then do this: Bend your knees and kneel on the floor. Let your arms hang straight down, then bend your elbows to bring your hands up. Now bring your hands together and thank God for your well-greased joints. Thank God for your marvelous machine!

View this article as it appeared in the print version.