Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

One afternoon when I sat in an orthopedist’s examining room, I had plenty of time to observe my surroundings. You know how it is. Sometimes the wait in an examining room turns out to be twice as long as it is in the reception area. I had done my time there and was ready for my exam. I got restless after sitting five minutes.

I had left reading materials at home and there were no magazines to thumb through. I wondered what those strange-looking instruments in bottles were on the table next to the wall. I shuddered just looking at the other table with white paper covering it. I knew I would be asked to move there once a nurse or doctor came in to examine my foot.

While I waited, I had a couple of choices to observe during that time. I could turn around and look out the window over the parking lot (I was on the fifth floor) where there was no activity, or gaze at the skeleton hanging next to my chair. I was there to have my foot examined after I stumbled on a sidewalk.

There was plenty of time to carefully look over the skeleton, especially bones in the feet, trying to match my bones covered with skin with the bare bones next to me. When you gaze at a skeleton, you realize just how important bones are.

Everyone knows (or should know) the Biblical story about God creating Eve, a companion for Adam, using one of Adam’s ribs. I believe that, but doubters should take note that one person in twenty has an extra rib. And that extra rib is three times more common in males. How about that? Did you know that newborns come into our world with 300 bones, but adults have just 206? Impossible, you say? Think about what happens to the skull at birth. It is in two parts in a malleable form so that it can pass easily through the birth canal. The parts fuse by the second year of life to become one. Other bones also fuse.

My interest in those bones in my feet led me to discover that nearly half the bones in the body are in the hands and feet.

God certainly had a master plan when he made our bodies. Just think about the purpose of our bones. They give shape to the body. They provide a place on which to hook muscles, ligaments, tendons, and tissues. They make up the enclosures for the heart, lungs, and other organs. Bones are a storage place for calcium. They are also where the body makes its blood cells.

The surface of the bone goes to work when there is a break, producing healing substances. Cells unite to make the material on the broken surfaces, forming the basis to grow us a new bone for healing. More than amazing, isn’t it?

The report on my foot revealed “the cleanest pictures ever,” according to my X-Ray. I was thankful that the bones and cells had no reason to go to work in my foot since there were no breaks.

I was thankful I had no broken bones, but I knew a fracture would wait in my pocketbook when my bill arrived in the mailbox in the next few days.