Secondary Schools Assemblies Resource Book - The Body Beautiful

Secondary Schools Assemblies Resource Book
CHRISTIAN IDEAS
THE BODY BEAUTIFUL
By Charlotte Benstead
Suitable for Whole School

Aim
To compare the human body with the body of Christ, that is, the Church.

Preparation and materials
• Ask some students to read the facts about the body (see point 2).
• Bible reading: 1 Corinthians 12.12–26.

Assembly
1. Begin by telling your audience that they are amazing, really amazing – well, their bodies are, anyway.
2. Ask your readers to read out the following facts:

• The body is composed of 70 trillion cells. That’s 70 million million cells! 80 percent of your body is water.
• You breathe enough air throughout your lifetime to fill 10 million balloons.
• The heart pumps 5 litres of blood through the body at any one time. An average heart beats over 100,000 times a day.
• There are about 62,000 miles of blood vessels in the body. Put end to end, they could wrap around the world 2.5 times.
• You consume 30 tons of food throughout your life.
• The body’s bacteria could fill a soup can.
• The average head has 100,000 hairs, each living for about 2 to 4 years.Under normal conditions, during strenuous exercise you can secrete 2 pints of sweat per hour.
• You secrete 17 gallons of tears throughout your lifetime.

3. Comment that the human body is a marvellous work of God’s creation. Every time you raise a finger or take a step, an infinite number of cells and nerves interact to produce such seemingly simple movements...

Taken from Secondary Schools Assemblies Resources Book edited by Stuart Kerner