Heartbeats

It’s a usual Friday morning as I watch our echocardiogram technician perform an echo ultrasound on a patient’s heart. I hear the familiar whoosh of the transducer as it locates the different valves and the ventricles of the heart. I’ve seen these pictures before but they never fail to leave me spellbound and hushed as I watch a beating heart pump life-giving blood in a human body.

Later that morning, I sit at a computer, scanning a heart monitor a worn by a patient for 48 hours. Every beat flashes before my eyes on the screen as I search for any abnormal rhythms that could be a cause of his symptoms. Analyzing the rates and forms and rhythms of someone’s heartbeat has become a comfortable routine for me…yet today I’m in awe as I’m reminded that every beat I see is giving someone life.

I turn on some praise music as I scan. The lyrics of the refrain reverberate in my soul, “Lord I’m amazed by You. Lord, I’m amazed by You. How you love me.”

As 118, 091 beats pass by, I’m amazed anew at the complexity of the human body, of the human heart. My amazement lifts my mind to the One who created it, Who keeps it in existence—every breath, every heartbeat.

I place my hand on my own heart. Every beat is a sign of His love. I feel the steady rhythm pulsing with life-giving blood—from One who is life-giving Love. Now you try. Place your hand over your heart right now. (It’s okay—no one’s looking. And if they are, ask them to join you.) Feel the strength of each beat and know that He loves you. You’ve heard it and you know it, but let. it. sink. in. Every beat is a sign of His desire for you to live and know you are loved. A sign of His desire to live in you and for your hearts to beat as one.

May we be convinced of that, comforted by it, and inspired to share that truth with everyone we meet.

Father. I have no words. Only a heart that desires to beat for you. To receive your love more deeply and share it more freely. Thank you for this amazing love.