A Global Advent: 25 Stories of God With Us Around the WorldSample

Press your hand against your heart right now so that you can feel it's quiet rhythm.

This year, your own heart will beat more than 35 million times. What a wonder!

Did you know that the average 11-year-old child’s heart beats up to 120 times each minute? Of every day. That’s over 150,000 heart beats in one day.

Photo Caption: Aren knows God is with him with every heartbeat.

For Aren in Indonesia, every heartbeat was one more measure of hardship and disappointment. Born with a heart condition that sidelined him from his beloved sport soccer, each day was yet another day he couldn’t run with his friends.

For two years—more than 70 million heart beats—Aren couldn’t run and play. He was sidelined and could only sit, watch and wonder if he’d ever live life to the fullest again.

Maybe you can relate. Perhaps you don’t have a physical condition in your heart that stops you from living life to the full, but there’s a big question or concern that isn’t easy to resolve.

Conflict and betrayal. Disappointment and tragedy. Stress, struggle and challenge.

These very real human experiences lead to so many questions. Will I ever experience life to the fullest again? Will this deep concern always on my heart and mind ever be resolved?

How many heartbeats before the answer comes, if ever?

Aren needed a timely and critical intervention to ensure his young heart could heal. The wonderful news is that through the care and support of his local church and Compassion’s team, he was connected to life-changing surgery that healed the condition completely. Today, Aren runs again.

How much more able is our Heavenly Father to heal our hearts, meet our needs and answer our desperate prayers. The psalmist reminds us that even when our flesh and our hearts fail, God is our strength!

What a joy to consider this truth today. Advent is a time to focus on the truth that Jesus came to earth to minister to us in the flesh and restore our hearts to God. A reminder that God is with us, for every heartbeat.

What critical need, physical or spiritual, can you bring to Him today?