Stapes & Femur

Although I’m a bone doctor, children’s bone doctor to be precise, I’m not qualified to treat all the 206 bones in the human body. Here I want to highlight the beauty and intricacy of the human body, hence the psalmist wrote, “I’m fearfully and wonderfully made”.

Femur which is the largest and longest bone in the human body can be up to 48 cms long and can take upto 30 times the body weight. This in itself is an unparalleled engineering marvel. The orthopedic surgeons (such as I) commonly operate on this big bone.

Stapes, the smallest bone which is stirrup shaped is inside the middle ear cavity (inside the skull). It’s just 2-3 mm in size and the ENT surgeons require either microscope or a magnifying loupe to operate on this small beauty. The stapes serves to relay the sound vibrations from the outside to be transmitted to the brain which in turn deciphers the sounds.

The dichotomy between the largest and the smallest bones in the body in terms of structure and function is fascinating. While one can bear many times the weight of the body the other can vibrate discreetly to relay the sound signals to the brain.

The God who made both the femur and the stapes is as much concerned about the minute and mundane as He is about the big things in our lives. Even the tiny and the inconspicuous details in our lives are woven into the grand picture of our lives. From our vantage point we may never fully comprehend the unraveling of divine plan and proposes for our lives. The Creator knows His creation best. It takes decades of learning to unravel even a fraction of what the good Lord made from dust.

Psalms 139:13-14 NLT
[13] You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. [14] Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.139.13-14.NLT

God bless you!

References
1. openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bodyphysics/chapter/stress-and-strain-on-the-body/#footnote-843-2

2. Àwengen, D. F.; Nishihara, S.; Kurokawa, H.; Goode, R. L. (April 1995). “Measurements of the stapes superstructure”. The Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology. 104 (4 Pt 1): 311–6.

3.www.researchgate.net/publication/333521311/figure/fig1/AS:764798413332480@1559353559479/The-three-auditory-ossicles-From-left-to-right-the-stapes-malleus-and-incus.jpg