By Jennifer Stultz
Tri-County Tribune Editor
Biblical Studies student, Barclay College
I learned a most interesting little tidbit of information recently about air and breathing. Did you know that if you form your mouth into the shape of “haha” and say the words, your breath comes out warm? And did you know that if you form your mouth into the shape of “hoo hoo,” (like an owl) the air that comes out of your mouth is colder? I thought that was so cool, and have been trying it off and on ever since I read it on Facebook.
Okay. So every now and then you can get something interesting and factual off of Facebook; you just have to be sure to check it out against some sort of standard truth.
I was surprised soon after gaining this air temp knowledge, however, when someone I consider smarter than myself stopped by and explained this hot, cold breath thing. His response to my experiment, without missing a beat, was, “Oh ya, that is called the Venturi effect. It’s just like a carburetor engine, you know, moving air through a smaller opening reducing fluid pressure.”
That went over my head as I am not an engine type of person and didn’t get it at all. Evidently I missed out on a whole segment of science somewhere in my education that taught how to make hot and cold air.
This smart person also told me that it was possible to make a primitive air conditioner by cutting off the bottoms of two-liter bottles, placing them in holes in a board and putting them in a window on a hot day. The air coming in the big side of the bottle is forced into a smaller, denser existence coming out of the smaller mouth of the bottle and is thus cooler on the inside.
“The air molecules have less energy and lower in temperature when they are compressed,” this smart person said.
Hmm. That took some brain matter to compress for me but I was totally impressed. What even impressed me more was that my devotions the next morning were about air and breathing and the living spirit of God. How is it that things line up like that?
Our earth and our human existence on it is due to the “hovering of the Holy Spirit” during the days of creation, according to Genesis 1:2 in the Holy Bible. And did you know that when man was created, he was just a lump sinew, and muscles, and bones, etc., until God breathed air into his lungs? I wonder if that was a hot or cold breath from God. Had to be warm because that means that God was laughing (haha makes warm, right?) and I am fully aware that God has a great sense of humor.
“Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7.
Without a doubt, there is not a person living and breathing on this earth, that was not inflated by the breath of God. Isn’t that amazing! As each baby born on earth emerges from his or her mother, the breath of God inflates the lungs and that mass becomes an earth-viable being. From the beginning of time it has been that way.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.” Psalm 33:6.
I remember when our second child was born, he was in a bit of a hurry to get out of the darkness of momma’s womb and into the world. Since we lived 25 miles from the hospital it was wild ride one February morning just over 30 years ago. It took minutes from our arrival, parking the smoking car (burned up that carburetor), going up the elevator four floors (with an attendant saying “not here, don’t have that baby in the elevator”), to hopping on the birthing table and out comes baby! There wasn’t time to call the doctor, but by a great miracle our pediatrician had been unable to sleep and went into work early that morning and was there on the 4th floor, as if called by God. Our precious little baby boy exited the birth canal so fast that he did not want to breath on his own. There was no cry out when he arrived but our pediatrician grabbed him and ran to an incubator while placing a hand pump over the baby’s nose and mouth, pumping air into him. For several minutes, while other nurses and doctors rushed around trying to fix a faulty incubator, our pediatrician (who shouldn’t have even been there) calmly keep our baby alive, pushing air in and air out, until all of the sudden he decided he wanted to join the living and cried out, filling his lungs with that God-breath, and a most precious gift was ours to take home and raise to adulthood. Isn’t that how it is, in a way, God is there breathing that holy-spirit-air into us, but we have to choose to grab it and go.
Sometimes we take for granted the air that we breathe and we forget it all came from God in the first place. If we are truly mindful and thankful for the air that we breathe, whether it be hot or cold, then we cannot forget to praise God from who all blessings flow. The funny thing is that the air we are breathing isn’t stale or stagnant, it is like a wind, moving, always alive, always moving. We cannot hold our breath forever and still stay alive, we have to breath in and breath out and let the Holy Spirit move in us and through us so that we might live fruitful and purposeful lives.
More than wondering about if we are hot or cold, we must remember to be thankful to the God who makes it possible for every human being on earth to be filled with the breath of life. Psalm 150 reminds everything that has breath to praise the Lord. God has given us life to praise and glorify Him, and there is great joy in fulfilling this mission.
“Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!” Psalm 150:6.
