(artwork by Eloise)

2.5 billion.  That is a huge number!!

And it is a little hard to comprehend.  Let’s start with 1 billion.  It is written like this in the Americas (not in England)  1,000,000,000.

Or you could say a billion is a thousand millions.  But that doesn’t mean anything to most of us.  Let’s put it this way.

“How big is a billion? If a billion kids made a human tower, they would stand up past the moon. If you sat down to count from one to one billion, you would be counting for 95 years. If you found a goldfish bowl large enough hold a billion goldfish, it would be as big as a stadium.”  (from here.)

or

“A billion seconds ago it was 1959.  A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.”  (from here.)

2.5 billion dollars is a huge amount!!!

2.5 billion is also the number of heart beats the average adult is allotted.  Suddenly that number doesn’t seem so big anymore.

Our heart beats about 70 beats per minute, 4,200 beats per hour, 100,800 beats per day, 36,792,000 times per year, and 2.5 billion times in 70 years.  (2,575,440,000)

A shrew’s heart beats 1,000 beats per minute, and a shrew lives about 1  1/2 years.

A mouse’s heart beats 500 beats per minute, and a mouse lives about 1 -2 years.

A rabbit’s heart beats 200 beats per minute, and a rabbit lives about 6 years.

An elephants heart beats 25 beats per minute, and lives about 60 years.

The mammals mentioned get about one billion beats in a life time. *

And yet a human’s heart beats 70 times per minute, and the averaged human lifespan is about 70 years.

A human gets “time and a half” on the number of heart beats it is allotted!!!

Why?

Because we have a purpose.

But somehow those 70 years we have seem to pass by very quickly.

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”  Ephesians 5:16

Redeeming the time.  The word “redeem” means to “buy back.”  Or repurchase.

There are a million things each day that take/steal my time.  We are told to “buy the time back.”  Buying something costs something.  OUCH!  The cost isn’t in dollars, but activities.

That is one view of the 2.5 billion heart beats allotted.

Think about this.

The heart pumps about 4,000 gallons of blood each day.  If you multiply the amount of energy out over a lifetime, it is enough energy to lift a battleship entirely out of the water!

lub-dub. lub-dub. lub-dub. lub-dub.

How am I going to use that energy?  How am I going to spend my 2.5 billion beats?  Will I be “time-wise”?

“but as wise, redeeming the time.”

–rebecca

P.S.  We just finished up studying the heart in our science time.  Sorry for all the facts and only one verse.  I just got to thinking about the phrase, “redeeming the time.”

* (Blood and Guts, by Linda Allison, 1976)

**  (Color Yourself Smart–Human Anatomy by Wendy L. Leonard, PhD, MPH, 2011)