I have been thinking a lot about our dear friends up in Alaska recently! The due date for their little baby was last week. I have been in much prayer for her delivery! And I have been thinking much about the changes in their family once the little one arrives.
It has brought to mind this fascinating piece from my devotional book: Inspired Evidence, by Julie Von Vett & Bruce Malone.
“Did you know that there is a hole in the heart of a baby in the womb?
“The blood does not need to circulate from the baby’s heart, through the lungs, because the baby receives its oxygen from the mom’s placenta via the umbilical cord. Yet the heart is a vital organ which must function from the beginning. So, what changes in the baby’s heart at birth?
“The unborn baby’s lungs are collapsed; therefore, the right side of the heart does not need to send blood to the lungs. The foramen ovale is a hole between the right and left side of the heart. Blood flows from the right side directly through the wall into the left side. An unborn baby has a hole in its heart.
“At birth, as the baby makes its first cry, oxygen sweeps in, the lungs are inflated, and the flap slams shut, closing the hole. Blood now starts circulating into the lungs to get oxygen. God designed this marvelous heart to function wonderfully before birth and after birth … without a moment’s delay.”
Wow! Is that not incredible! I had no idea! God is so amazing!
“O LORD, you know me. … You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
“My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together … Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
“How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”
– Psalm 139:1, 13-17
