I SAW MY HEART!

The short story is: I had an echocardiogram on Tuesday.

I reported at 6:45 AM. After a short wait, I was escorted down a hallway by a young woman who looked like a high school student. We entered a small room where an older woman was sitting at a desk. The room included a place to lie down and a machine on a cart.

Immediately upon entering the room, she explained that she was a student and asked if it would be ok if she did my test. I agreed – with little time to actually think about it. She had me lie down after taking off my shirt. She attached adhesive pads to my chest and stomach and then attached wires to those pads.

I told this young lady to watch for a flash of light during this procedure. I explained that I had accepted Jesus as a child and that He has been living in my heart ever since! [Both women smiled!]

Quickly, she placed gel on an instrument and put it in the center of my chest. She quickly found what she was looking for – my heart.  She simply held it there for a long time before moving it to my left side, where she held it again for a long time. Finally, she lowered it to just below my chest and again held it there for a long time.  All-in-all, I’d say this procedure took a half-an-hour (maybe more).

Eventually, the older woman took control and simply repeated the process very quickly.

Now, somewhere along the way in this process, I realized that they were watching a screen that – at times – I could also see.

That’s when I saw my heart!!!!!!

I could make out my aortic chamber and its systematic beating. I could see the valve to the lower chamber of my heart systematically opening and allowing the blood to flow through.

Needless to say, I was fascinated by what I was seeing!

Then, suddenly, she switched to a different mode and this time I could see what I believe were the electronic impulses that cause my heart to work! That aortic chamber flashed with an orange and blue light. I assume that this was the electric impulse that makes our hearts work! I was mesmerized!

It looked like a tiny explosion occurring over and over again in my heart!

DISCLAIMER:

I was the patient! I know nothing about the instrument or processes that were being used on me. I’ve only described the experience from a layman’s perspective! I could have misinterpreted what was going on!

You’ll be happy – along with me – to know that I was later told by my doctor that I have a strong, healthy heart along with no symptoms of Atrial Fibrillation.  I do, however, have an irregular heartbeat that puts me at an increased risk for a stroke. He’s walking me through some processes that he hopes will get my heart back into rhythm. It sounds like it will be a rather SHOCKING experience! I’ll also need to be on a blood thinner for the rest of my life – just in case my heart returns to an irregular heart-beat. Not exactly something I can get excited about! I am averse to taking any medications! Oh well!

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I don’t want to turn this into a theological treatise. We can do that another day.

I’m aware, of course, that when the Bible speaks about the heart, it is speaking of something more than the organ that catalyzes life by its persistent beating.

However, today, I was awakened to the blessing of an organ that mysteriously has been beating in my chest since around June of 1951, when I was 4-5 weeks into my formation within my mother’s womb!  I was about five weeks old and my mother might not even have known about me yet…

You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.

 Psalm 139:13-14 [NASB]