Considering Your Scapula
September 7, 2013 | My Jottings
I don’t know if it’s because I just had surgery on some bones, but lately I’ve been thinking about bones. That would stand to reason, wouldn’t it? I mean, my right femur will never be the same. My right tibia and fibula are forever changed. And my patella, that little round disc of a bone? Thirteen weeks ago it had a piece attached to it that will never come off.
Lord-willing.
Anyway, for some reason the other day I was thinking about the scapula. You know what that is, don’t you? It’s your shoulder blade, your chicken wing. It’s that place on your upper back that feels so good when someone massages up under the inner muscles that surround it. Most of us have two of them.
Be honest with me now. Have you ever in your life carefully considered your two scapulae? I hope after you read this blog post, you’ll think about your scapulae in a new, awe-filled way. Because when I started thinking about what an amazing bone a scapula is, how odd and astoundingly complex and supremely functional it is, I was filled with awe. I sat there considering my scapulae and I said, “God, I can’t even get over You. You are amazing. You are brilliant. You are so kind! To carefully form such a wonderful bone so we can move our arms and shoulders and paint and hug and wave and stretch and be protected and gesture and swim! Thank you Lord. Thank you! I think the way You made scapulae is so marvelous I can’t think of anything else to say! Except thank you. And Lord, I want you to know I noticed today.”
If you have never seen exactly how the triangular scapula bone sits in a body, click here first before reading on.
Now take a long look at this illustration of the scapula, from three different angles:
Did you see the Glenoid cavity? How about that Acromial process? And the Supraspinous fossa? Wow! Who could design such a wonderful thing, if not God? Whoever knew that a weird looking triangular bone could inspire worship?
If you’re like me, you have a lot of things to think about today, aside from your shoulder blades. Bills, children, Syria, health concerns, troubles aplenty. But I invite you to consider your scapula. Take a moment right now and give thanks to God for thinking up such a bone, and carefully forming it as you grew in your mother all those years ago. Thank Him for the things you’re able to do just because you have two scapulae that help support other more notable bones.
That’s all. I wanted someone to join me in my thanks and awe today.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Julie, with utmost love I say to you what I say a lot to my older daughter Our inside bits are hidden for a reason. 😛 I saw more than enough of her insides when she broke her collar bone. I swear, that girl was obsessed with her x~rays & showed everybody. However, I couldn’t look too closely because inside bits have a high *ick* factor for me. A passing glance assures me they look more like angel wings than anything else. 🙂 And like you I am immeasurably grateful all the inside bits work as they ought.
Ganeida you are funny! A bone gives you the willies? Well, then, you have all your fortitude stored up for spiritual things! Hugs to you… xoxo
Really, truly, lovely, Julie. Though I sympathize with Ganeida’s squeamishness–thank God for cloaking us in skin!
As I read, one of my own trouble spots–my left sciatic nerve, is singing along loudly in a minor key to your major chord praise of God’s handiwork. I am thinking that perhaps we can use specific body mis-functions to praise His amazing design–and rejoice in the day of perfect healing when this mortal is clothed in immortality. What will we see when we gaze at our scapulae then?
I like the way you look at things, Diane. Even writing about your sciatic pain was hopeful and redemptive! Thank you for stopping by here… xoxoxo
Ooh, I love seeing pictures showing how we’re put together! Human biology fascinates me, but pictures are enough. For instance, I would most definitely not be too keen on viewing an operation in real life!
I’ve always been fascinated by anatomy and physiology too, Kay. I like to watch surgeries online, but seeing blood drawn in someone’s arm makes me a little sick. Somehow that doesn’t make sense why I can watch one and not the other, but oh well. 🙂 xoxo
Julie, I think that when we watch surgery online, we instinctively know that we won’t be able to smell or touch any of the gore. But I’m like you in that I can’t watch blood taken from myself or someone else if I can touch and smell all that’s happening. When viewing something online or on T.V. it’s almost as if the procedure is sanitised or desensitised by distance.
I think you’re right Kay. But even watching blood being drawn with a tiny needle from the inside of someone’s arm on TV is icky to me. Even at a distance. I think it’s one of those Pavlovian things, where if I see it, I instantly feel a reaction. :O xo
This is fascinating to me as well. I took an anatomy & physiology class once in college and was absolutely as amazed as you at the wonder of God’s inventions and design in our body. Especially the fact that nothing is wasted and every little, teeny, thing has a purpose. In looking at photo you embedded under the “click here”, I can see a great angle of where my clavicle was fractured right at the acromial process. Still on the mend, but grateful that it will all work as it was intended again some day!!
I’ve been wondering how your clavicle is healing, Taun. I know however it goes, slowly or almost done knitting soon, you will trust and praise God through the whole thing. Think what a delight you must be to Him. xoxox