Monitors
David wrote, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made…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.” Psalm 139:13-16 (excerpted)
My mother-in-law recently had knee surgery and I sat with her as she was recovering after the surgery.
As a nurse I’m naturally interested in all of the monitoring devices—many things have changed since I was in school! Various devices monitored her oxygen level, blood pressure, and temperature.
A device collected her own blood from the surgical site; later her own blood was infused back into her body to help speed recovery. Although her oxygen level is fine, she is breathing extra oxygen through prongs in her nose; this has also been found to speed healing.
IVs administer antibiotics to prevent infection.
A device automatically moves the leg that was operated on to speed healing. A device on her other leg periodically squeezes it from toes to thigh to prevent blood clots from forming.
Special nerve blocks, in which medication was injected into nerves that lead to her leg and knee, should keep the surgical site free from pain for hours.
Lab techs come in to draw blood and check if her hemoglobin level drops too much.
All of this technology is necessary to monitor my mother-in-law’s condition and speed healing.
But for One, none of the monitoring is necessary. He was there when she was being knit together in her mother’s womb. He created her inmost being. He knows the number of hairs on her head and the number of days of her life has already been written in His book (Psalm 139).
He knows her temperature, blood pressure, pulse, oxygen level and hemoglobin level without the use of any machine. He has designed her body so that it will heal; the man-made devices will help speed healing but He has formed the cells, the fibers, the muscles that will actually heal, and He has set in motion that process that is more complicated than we can imagine.
Despite all of the technology, the devices and tools to measure function and speed healing and prevent complications—we remember that He is the Great Physician. He is the true Healer.
I praise You, Lord, that I am so fearfully and wonderfully made. Even as we are thankful for “modern” equipment that helps us maintain and regain health, we know that You are the ultimate Healer. Amen.
I’m also blogging at Home is Where the Mom Is.
Check out the post today about “Making Preparations for Severe Weather
and Spiritual Storms.”
