Pastor Joe Harding told of going on a mission to Kenya. One of the other men on the trip was a Minnesota doctor named Dr. Boelke. On the trip home, Boelke told of how he spoke to congregations in Kenya on Sundays after meeting medical needs during the week. Part of what the doctor said to the Kenyans had to do with the human heart. He told of how, before a baby is born, the child has a simple two–chamber heart that pumps the mother’s blood that is oxygenated in the mother’s lungs. When a baby is born, however, the heart changes into a four–chamber pump that allows the child to breathe on its own. The doctor pats the baby, it gasps, and the lungs fill with air. The blood goes to the lungs where it is oxygenated. It is then pumped throughout the whole body to nourish it.

Then the doctor said, “You know, something like that happens when we experience new birth. In spiritual birth God gives us a new heart. He swats us, we gasp, and are filled with the Spirit, God’s breath, and the power and nourishment of God is carried to every cell of our new being. Isn’t that wonderful?”