A Heart of Love

A tenaciously hard-working dynamo, the heart can continue beating even when all surrounding nerves are severed. And what a beat! It thumps an average of 75 times a minute, 40 million times a year, and 2.5 billion times in an average life. With each beat, the adult heart discharges about four ounces of blood. This amounts to about 2,000 gallons a day or 760,000 gallons a year. The heart is often associated with love.

We eat heart-shaped candies and cakes. We buy cards with cartoon hearts on them for our loved ones. Hearts are scribbled at the bottom of love letters. Understanding the power of the heart makes it even more reasonable to connect it with true love. The heart produces enough energy in one hour to lift a 150-pound man to the top of a three-story building; in 12 hours enough to lift 65-tons one foot off the ground; and enough power in 70 years to lift the largest battleship completely out of the water.

Perhaps the biggest heart of all is found in the blue whale. These giant mammals are not considered full-grown until 10 years of age, when its heart will be as big as a small car and its blood vessels large enough for a human baby to crawl through. If a fast-beating heart represents deep love, then the hedgehog might be a very loving creature. Its heart beats about 300 times per minute.

When Paul explains how spiritual gifts are to function in the body of Christ, he speaks of love. In 1 Corinthians 13 we discover that without love all the gifts in the world are meaningless. Love is the very center of how Christ’s church is to live and serve. Without love it is all like a clanging gong.

Despite all the power of a human heart, it is powerless to change itself. We must receive God’s love into our hearts. No matter how much blood your heart can pump, it will never be a heart that loves unless it is converted by the love of Christ. Give your heart to Jesus today.

Key Bible Texts

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. (1 Corinthians 13:13 KJV)