2.4 degrees of separation

I need a hot cup of coffee! Seriously, with temperatures topping 100 degrees, it is the most common sense thing to have. Follow along for a second. If it is hot outside, I drink a hot coffee. The added heat makes me sweat, the sweat begins to evaporate, and my skin temperature actually drops. Voila!

If it is cold outside, I drink ice water which starts my body to shivering. Shivering actually burns calories which in turn creates heat. Voila!

Stop for a second and consider 101 degrees. I sort of understand things like 'real feel' and humidity levels. I understand in part something called 'dew point'. Really though, 101 degrees is just north of our normal body temperature of 98.6 by 2.4 degrees.

Yet, we don't walk around complaining how hot we are in a normal state. We do walk around murmuring about the intense heat outside and we'll seek air conditioning and consume cold beverages. When it's 101 degrees outside, it feels as though someone's holding a hair dryer in our face.

How does our body hover around 100 degrees and all is well? Then again, I have held several of our children while their temps spiked 103 and 104 degree fevers and wondered. Fact is, our bodies are miraculous in how internal systems monitor and maintain health. Even in the midst of a fever, our body is working to eliminate some sort of virus.

The current state of our world suggests an ongoing narrative first born in the Garden of Eden. Chaos swirls all around us and yet, in spite of it, there is still order to our world. It speaks to a God that continues to work in ways we cannot see or understand. Go ahead, explain the reasons why my body temp is 98.6 yet I don't walk around complaining of being too hot.

"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my

thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you

have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are

there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far

side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

(Psalm 139:1-10, NIV)

Be thankful that God has designed us as creatures who don't depend on chance in order to survive. He watches over you and me. 2.4 degrees doesn't seem like much but is the difference between normal and feverish.