Category Archives: Existence of God

What is so glorious as a fine Fall day as the gilding of Autumn makes the broad-leafed trees almost to be aflame in the afternoon sun? How often, as we rejoice in the riot of color, are we made to feel glad to be alive, and able to revel in such a scene?

But at the same time, how thought-provoking it is to realize that this pageant of color is a pageant of death. Those so-vivid leaves only seem to be bursting with vitality. Actually, they are in the process of dying. Soon they will be withered and sere, and then they will fall. But already they have ceased their work, and cut off their life-giving arteries to the branch of the tree.

During the growing season, each leaf is a busy “factory” in microcosm. Its cells convert energy from sunlight into nutrients for the living plant. But the shortening of days of autumn trigger a major change in the leaf. It empties its factory cells of chlorophyll and stored food into the branch, and thence to the tree trunk. At the same time, a barrier layer of cells forms at the stem end of the leaf. When the leaf finally falls, this barrier layer will plug the wound so that the tree will not “bleed” sap.

When the leaf loses its green chlorophyll, its true color is revealed. Most often that color is one of the shades of yellow or orange which are so common in the woods in autumn. This pigment was always present, but was masked by the overpowering green of the chlorophyll while the leaf lived.

In other leaves, however, red pigment of various hues is manufactured during the “shutting-down” process, for reasons that are not yet understood. In every case, however, the emergence of the bright color outwardly signals a transformation of death that already far advanced inwardly.

It should also be noted that the death of its leaves is vital to the continued life of the parent tree or bush. If a broad-leafed plant tried to remain “open for business” through the winter, it would be highly vulnerable to freezing. It would also be without the reserves of food and moisture needed to last out the winter and start up again the next Spring. Thus, in a real sense, the leaves readily give their lives for the good of the whole.

What prompts the self-sacrifice? A plant scientist would no doubt point to certain chemicals which initiate the response. Thus, for example, leaves begin the self-destruction process when they cease to manufacture auxin, the plant growth hormone. It is also believed that the seasonal shortening of the day somehow causes the leaves to stop producing the hormone.

But we do not know precisely how this is arranged, nor how it all began. As with so many of the secrets of nature, leaf-fall had to have been a perfected mechanism from the outset: otherwise the plant species would have quickly perished. (Note: this would not a consequence in the tropics – but neither would there have been any reason for the protective mechanism to have been developed. Thus, the plants either could not – for lack of time – or would not – for lack of need developed leaf-fall by themselves.)

Instead, we are witnessing once again the marvelous handiwork of God, for only He could create the finished wonders we discover. Indeed, the deeper we dig, the more we discover that our world is not filled with life which slowly evolved, but with life which sprang suddenly into its finished state.

But there is another lesson to be learned from the voluntary fall of leaves, and the beauty of their death. Just as they give themselves for the good of the parent plant, so there lived a Man who gave up His life in order that the souls of mankind might be preserved. And this, too, is a wonderful provision of God, who looked upon man and saw that all had sinned, and therefore could not qualify for heaven. A sacrifice was needed as our substitute – one who could take our sins upon himself. But only one who was utterly unstained by sin could be such a sacrifice – for otherwise he also would need a sacrifice! So God sent His own Son, to be the sacrificial lamb without blemish. And truly there was great beauty in His death, though He died in agony upon a cross.

It is for this reason that the Bible urges all to, “Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry… Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:12)

(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

All over the world, in plains and forest, in gardens and pastures, in homes and alleys, an oft repeated miracle takes place every summer day. This event is the construction of millions of spider’s webs.

What? Miraculous? Let us not reject the thought without examination: Let us scrutinize some of these marvelously engineered lacy filigrees of silk. Let us watch a typical spider build her web.

First, we should examine he spinning mechanism. Spiders possess from two to six or even more spinnerets on their abdomens, with each spinneret capable of producing a different type of filament. The web, for example, will contain both sticky and dry filaments. The spider-engineer will use dry filament for the “scaffolding” of her web and sticky filament to entangle her prey.

Under a microscope the sticky filament reveals its ingenious secrets: First, it is stranded, to give it tremendous stretching capacity without breaking; yet this elasticity allows it, when freed from tension, to resume its original shape. Second, the filament is found to be, actually, a hollow tube which is filled with the sticky material. Thus as the web dries out, fresh glue exudes from the core and renews the effectiveness of the coating. (“The Wonders of Instinct”, Jean Henri Fabre, Century Co., N.Y., 1918, pp. 174-175.)

Let us watch now as a typical spider creates a new web. First she climbs to a branch or twig of the proper height. Once the starting point is selected, and the breeze is right, she lets go of the twig and falls toward the ground. As she falls, she leaves a strand of silk trailing behind her. Just short of the ground her spinnerets shut off the flow, and the spider stops abruptly. Then she climbs back to the starting point, again leaving a silky filament behind her, so that when she regains her first perch there is a large loop of silk billowing in the breeze.

If our spider has chosen her location wisely, the loop, wafted by the wind, will soon make contact at some point with another twig or branch, and when it does, her baseline is established. She will traverse this baseline repeatedly, laying more strands which will become as one in a stout, though still barely visible, cable. Only at its ends will it be seen to divide, as she makes the strands fast to a variety of anchor points.

Next, she constructs her “scaffolding,” by dropping numerous vertical lines, and then horizontal and oblique cross-lines from them, until at last she can walk to any desired point on the web understructure. All of this silk is dry. The radials are drawn out next, like spokes on a wheel. Finally, comes the spiral webbing which gives the web both its beauty and its deadliness, for the webbing will trap her prey in its adhesive coils.

Our spider can expect to rebuild he web after only a day or two, for both bad weather and large insects can wreak havoc on it. When she does rebuild she, herself, will do away with all the web except the original anchor cable.

Does the spider spin only to put food on the table? Not at all. Spiders also use their web apparatus at the other critical junctures of life. For instance, the mother spider builds an elaborate silk nest for her eggs, which will keep them safe until hatching time. In some species, the male spider wraps the female with silk before mating with her, perhaps to save himself from her voracious appetite! The newly emerged young of many species use their web spinning ability to literally launch themselves on their careers: They climb as high as they are able, on a day when the sun is warm and the heated air is rising. They then spin out a long strand of silk, and when the tug of the line is sufficient, they release their hold on the branch and allow themselves to be wafted to their new home. Ballooning spiders have been encountered as high as 2,600 feet in the air!

How do the young spiders know how to do this? How do spiders learn how to spin their webs? The answer is: They do not learn it. They already know it, from birth. We label this knowledge “instinct,” thereby managing to overlook what a wondrous miracle it is. The same Creator who gave spiders the ability to spin gave them the in-born knowledge of how to use it.

This Creator, whom we call God, give to each of His creatures all that it needs to fulfill its purpose in life. And this is true also of man: of you and me. We also are endowed by our Creator with the strength, intelligence, capabilities and the potential we need to fulfill our purpose.

Unlike unreasoning nature, man cannot find his purpose in life apart from God, for so He made us. “God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27) We will find, if we seek within ourselves, that we also have an instinctive drive within us – an instinctive drive to seek out our God and find our fulfillment and our rest in Him.

(Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Probably man has always envied the birds for their ability to fly. Throughout our history, man has been the earth-bound plodder, watching birds swoop and soar overhead. The ancient Greek legend of Icarus, who supposedly fastened feathers to his arms with wax, recalls our long frustration. According to the legend, Icarus was enabled to fly so high that the heat of the sun melted the wax, so that he fell to his death.

Actually, it takes a great deal more than borrowed feathers to make man able to fly, so we turned to mechanical aids – first the hot-air balloon and ultimately the space-going rocket. These are remarkable achievements, but still our mechanical flight falls far short of the freedom of unencumbered flight which birds enjoy.

How do birds do it? Thanks to many who have made the study of birds their life work, we now know a good deal about how birds fly. But the more we learn, the more obvious it becomes that flying, which comes so naturally to birds, is a very special gift which demands several major physical adaptations.

First, of course, we must mention wings. To gain the wings they need for flight, birds had to sacrifice the stability of four legs, or the usefulness of hands. This is because the bone structure of wings is the same as that which became forelegs or arms and hands in other animals, as well as man.

Secondly, birds’ bones are very different internally from those of other animals. They are hollow, in marked contrast to the heavy, marrow-filled bones of other animals and man. Not only are they hollow, they are also efficiently braced internally, so that they offer strength without much weight. This is important because every once of weight must be lifted in flight.

Of course, when we think of birds, we immediately think also of feathers. Feathers are a highly specialized development of the same substance that in other animals becomes horns or hooves or claws (or fingernails in man). What a unique creation feathers are! Like the bones, they are hollow, yet rigid and very strong. Extrusions of the horny material of which they are made become the beautifully detailed barbs, of which the vanes on both sides of the central shaft are formed. These barbs are hooked together, so that a continuous, cohesive surface is created which is capable of pushing against the air.

Normally, each bird is equipped with ten large flight feathers at the outer extremity of each wing. This portion of the wing corresponds to the “hand,” and is where most of the dynamics of flight take place. Most birds move their wings at three separate joints: shoulder, elbow and wrist. The inner portions of the wing provide lift, similar in function to an airplane’s wings. Continuing the comparison, the “hand” portion of the bird’s wing is its “propellers,” since they furnish the motive power.

All birds fly by flapping, but some do more dynamic gliding than flapping after they get well up into the air. Such birds as eagles, buzzards and condors can be observed to be almost motionless as they soar high above the earth. They are equipped with large high-lift wings, and are capable of riding on currents of warm air for hours. Perhaps the king of soaring birds is the albatross, of the far southern oceans. Gliding with the aid of its 11 ½ foot wingspread, the albatross patrols the trackless ocean for days and weeks on end, endlessly searching for food. During these long patrols, it seems to light on the water only to feed. It is believed to be able to sleep while on the wing.

There are many other adaptations which make flight possible for birds. For example, their wings are powered by strong breast muscles, comprising up to 25 percent of their total weight (30 percent in the case of hummingbirds). Interestingly, the meat of the flight muscles may be white or red, depending on how well supplied they are with blood vessels. Migratory birds, which must be able, in many cases, to fly hundreds of miles without stopping, are typically red-meated. White-meated birds are not capable of long-sustained flight, though they may fly very swiftly for short periods.

Finally, consider the fuel efficiency of birds. Tiny hummingbird are perhaps the most efficient: Ingesting only the nectar of flowers, they convert this sugar to fat for maximum storage of calories, and the convert the fat back to sugar just before it is oxidized (“burned”) to provide energy. Hummingbirds are migratory, and many of them fly non-stop for more than 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico as they transit between summer and winter homes. It has been calculated that if hummingbirds were the size of men, they would consume approximately 155,000 calories per day. If a man had to create this much energy, he would need to eat 285 pounds of hamburger, or 130 pounds of bread, each day!

How can we account for all these specialized adaptations? Did front legs gradually transform into wings? We pity the poor changeling that had to cope with life for a few million years in the middle of the process! And, if this somehow happened, against all believability, where is the record in the fossils? There is none! When birds first appear in the fossils, they are fully birds. No transition forms have ever been found, though there should be myriads of intervening forms, each shading ever so gradually into the next, if evolution were true.

This is equally true of feathers. Feathers, when they first appeared, were true feathers in every sense of the word. Indeed, partial feathers would be useless for flight. The bird would be “grounded” until they developed. And what shall we say of hollow bones? How on earth did birds come up with that feature?

All of these adaptations were necessary, yet none could have come about by the slow process of evolution. There is only one way they could have all happened, and that is the way God’s Word says it happened: “God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:21) In other words, they were birds from the very first, by deliberate design – God’s design.

The next time you see a bird in the air, recognize it as a beautiful creation of the God who made the world, and saw that it was good. To those who have eyes to see, all the earth becomes a vast symphony of praise to God. Praise His Name!

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Today we have a puzzle for you: What is it that drinks its mother’s milk, is able to find its way home across hundreds of miles of trackless waste, and is universally known as a symbol of peace?

If you guessed the pigeon family of birds, you answered correctly. Actually there is no single species in the pigeon family which fully solves the puzzle, but jointly they do so.

The dove, of course, is the symbol of peace around the world. This is very appropriate, for doves and pigeons are among the most peaceable of creatures. Doves and pigeons are very closely related, both being members of the family which scientists have called in Latin, Columbidae. The distinction is chiefly one of size: smaller species are usually called “doves,” and larger species are called “pigeons.” The difference in more in the popular mind than in science.

To return to our puzzle, which bird is it that drinks its mother’s milk? And the answer is: only pigeons and doves. One of the most unusual characteristics of pigeons is that nesting parents feed their chicks with a substance which is popularly called “pigeon milk.” Since true milk comes only from milk glands in mammals, it isn’t exactly milk which pigeons secrete – but you couldn’t convince a baby pigeon!

“Pigeon milk” is actually sloughed off the lining of the adult’s crop. It is interesting to note that both parents produce this “milk.” The young stick their beaks down the parental throat and drink the nutritious beverage. This is another unique feature of pigeons – their ability to actually suck liquids. All other birds drink by taking a beak-full of liquid and then raising their heads so the fluid will flow down to their stomachs of its own accord.

To facilitate this method of feeding, nestlings do not develop feathers on their foreheads and chins until they are ready to begin eating an adult diet of seeds, which happens after about 10 days. It’s a polite adaptation: One can imagine how Momma pigeon would feel if Junior insisted on sticking a faceful of feathers down her throat every time he got hungry!

The final clue to our puzzle was the ability to find home, when by all that is normal, home should be impossible to find. This is a talent which homing pigeons possess to an uncanny degree. It has been shown over and over that homing pigeons can be taken in shrouded cages to locations hundreds of miles away from their home lofts without getting lost. In fact, armies have counted on pigeon battle-field messengers from the 12th century B.C., when Egyptians generals introduced the practice.

This is not the same ability that many birds and insects have of being able to navigate by the sun or stars – though that, too, is a marvelous feat. Pigeons must do far more than follow a set pathway through the sky, as do many migrating species, since the point of origin may be in a different direction each trip. Their secret is an unexplained today as it was three thousand years ago.

Altogether, the pigeon-dove is a most remarkable animal. How did it get that way? The choices are only two: either it evolved, or it was uniquely designed by a Creator who knew from the outset what He wanted the bird to be like.

It is so difficult to account for all its characteristics by evolution that we cannot accept this solution. How, for instance, did “pigeon milk” evolve? More to the point, how would baby pigeons have survived while it was developing? And what good would it do them unless they somehow developed the simultaneous ability to suck up this milk from their parent’s throats? We might also ask why pigeons should have taken such a peculiar evolutionary direction, contrary to general bird characteristics, if they inherited the same characteristics from a supposed “bird family tree”? It doesn’t make sense.

What does make sense is that not only the uniqueness of pigeons, but all the amazing variety of life we discover in our world is the product of design. Everywhere we look, and the more closely we examine nature, the more we find every creature, every form of plant life, perfectly situated in its biological niche, just as a fine gem is carefully fitted into its setting.

This is precisely what is implied in the biblical account: “God created the large sea creatures, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful, and multiply…” (Genesis 1:21-22)

There is one more quality of the dove which we must mention, and that is what it represents: not merely peace, but the God of peace, and God’s Holy Spirit, sent into the world to achieve His divine purposes. We note that it was a dove which returned to Noah in the Ark, bearing an olive leaf as a a sign that the Great Flood was over. It was also the form of a dove which alighted upon Jesus at His baptism, as a sign from God that this was His beloved Son (Matthew 3:16). In Luke 3:22, this is specifically revealed as the Holy Spirit, temporarily embodied in the shape of a dove.

Ever since then, the dove has been the symbol of God’s watch over His creation. The Bible tells us that God sent His Holy Spirit into the world to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment (John 16:8). God’s Holy Spirit is still doing this in our world, calling men everywhere to repent of their wickedness, and to call upon the Son of God, that they might have eternal life. Think well upon these things, each time you see a dove or a pigeon.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Suppose you were given the responsibility of designing the ultimate flying machine: It must be capable of flying backward as well as forward, and be able to fly straight up or straight down with equal facility. It must also be able to hover motionlessly in mid-air.

Such an assignment would be quite a task, wouldn’t it? But, if one were a top-notch aeronautical engineer, perhaps he could design such a machine – though no one has ever done so yet.

But suppose, in addition, that this flying machine must not weigh more than one-tenth of an ounce (3 grams), and that it must be capable of flying more than 500 miles non-stop without additional fuel capacity. One would have to declare the task utterly impossible! And so it is, for man.

But there actually is such a marvelous flying machine, and it has been in existence for thousands of years. It is the hummingbird – so called for the hum its wings produce as they beat approximately 70 times each second.

There are about 320 different species of hummingbirds, which are native only to the Western Hemisphere. They range in size from the “giant” hummingbird (Patagona gigas) of South America, which weighs two-thirds of an once (20 grams), down to the “bee” hummingbird of Cuba and the Isle of Pines, which weighs only one-fifteenth of an ounce (2 grams) at maturity. If you could capture and hold 240 of these at one time, you would have barely a pound of hummingbirds.

Despite their diminutive size, some hummingbirds migrate as far as 2,000 miles each spring and autumn. The Ruby Throated hummingbird nests in Southern Canada and winters in Central America, as far south as Panama. Some of them fly non-stop for 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico – a fantastic distance for a tiny creature hardly more than two inches long!

Hummingbirds fuel their furious activity by dining upon the nectar of flowers; and in return they pollinate the generous hosts as they dart from flower to flower.

(This reciprocal arrangement is typical of nature’s Architect. The grand design of nature features countless examples of plants and animals unconsciously working together in various combinations to achieve a precious balance, in which each species is allowed to propagate itself, but none is allowed to multiply out of control. The unthinking tinkering of man sometimes upsets this balance, with catastrophic results!)

Who is the Master Designer? Some would have us imagine that each plant and animal designed itself – but his is a manifest absurdity. The hummingbird is a living proof of this: It must have nectar regularly, or starve. Thus it has to migrate with the changing seasons; yet it could not do so unless every part of its body functioned perfectly from the beginning just as it does now. As we probe the hummingbird’s secrets, we discover the Creator’s signature in living flesh.

Job knew this, nearly four thousand years ago: “But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. Who doesn’t know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” (Job 12:7-10)

Indeed, God is not only the Creator of all life; He also holds the breath of all mankind in His hand, and it is to Him that we owe life itself, for that life comes from Him. Let us rejoice in His goodness, and seek Him as a Father!

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Paper is a wonderful product of a thousand uses, but where did it come from? How was it invented, and by whom? Well, people who investigate that sort of thing credit the Chineese with the invention of paper, about the beginning of the Second Century A.D.1

But we must share with you that the Chinese were not the first makers of paper. They were “Johnny-come-latelies” on the paper scene, some thousands of years after the real inventors. For the genuine first makers of paper were not people at all, but wasps. The descendants of those wasps are still in the same business, still making their homes out of tissue-thin paper.

In the tropics, some of these nests become quite large, housing thousands of wasps. But in regions of killing winter frost, only the queens hibernate and survive to start new colonies in the spring.

After her awakening, the queen wasp will find some well-seasoned wood, such as an old log or post, and scrape fibers of wood from its surface with her jaws. She then makes paper in her mouth, simply by chewing. The process is quite comparable – on a very small scale – to modern paper making factories, where wood chips are reduced to a mash of fibers, which are then formed and dried into paper.

Since the queen wasp is all alone, she must do all the work of starting the nest. First she builds a foundation upon a twig or bough or in a cavity of a tree, and from this she builds down, adding a mouthful at a time. When she has completed half a dozen cells, the queen lays an egg in each.

Worker wasps hatch from these eggs, and after the queen has fed and cared for them through the grub stage, they take over the tasks of nest building and nursing the grubs as they hatch. The queen then retires from the working force and henceforth devotes all her energies to producing eggs.

Of course the paper-making wasps didn’t really invent paper. They didn’t even discover it; for both invention and discovery involve reasoning processes. Wasps simply do what they have done from the very beginning without ever once thinking about it. Paper-making in their case is purely instinctive. In other words, it is part of the style or manner of life for which they were equipped when they first came into the world.

But how were they equipped, and by whom? To ask this is to seek after the real inventor of paper – and of all else upon earth and under the earth. There is only One who possesses the wisdom as well as the power to create our world in all its diversity. That One is God.

Hear the word from the prophet Jeremiah: “He (that is God) has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens…” (Jeremiah 10:12) The paper-making wasps are but one of myriads of confirming witnesses to the prophet’s testimony.

Job urges us to heed the evidence of nature: “But ask the animals, now, and they shall teach you; the birds of the sky, and they shall tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach you. The fish of the sea shall declare to you. Who doesn’t know that in all these, the hand of Yahweh has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?” (Job 12:7-12)

It is never enough to simply know that God created us. We were created to know and acknowledge and love Him.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

“Busy as a bee” is a way we may describe someone who is always on the go, always hurrying about his appointed duties. And that certainly is the way bees are, for they seem to display almost ceaseless expenditures of energy. In fact, the workers do literally wear themselves out at their work. During the active season, they live for only about six weeks.

But, how do the worker bees come by their characteristic busyness? Certainly not from their parents! Their mother, known as the queen bee, never brings home a single drop of nectar not the least speck of pollen; and the male drones lead the most idle sort of life imaginable. Their only connection with honey is in eating it!

Of course, the queen is not really idle, for she is busy laying up to 2,000 eggs each day. The drones also have an important part in the life of the hive, which they perform during the mating flight. But the point is that neither parent has any experience or personal knowledge of honey production or hive making to pass on to their offspring. The workers, however, know by instinct what they must do and approximately how to do it.

(Researchers have learned that new worker adults do polish their skills through a type of “apprenticeship program.” They progress through a series of tasks such as hive cleanup, feeding the next crop of larvae, receiving and storing incoming food supplies, guarding the hive, and, finally, gathering food in the fields.)

Not only are the workers unable to learn from their parents, they also are constructed differently in some respects. For example, their hind legs are modified to provide built-in pollen baskets, which neither drones nor queens possess.

Yet queens, drones and workers all begin as undifferentiated eggs, as like as peas in a pod. The differences come about through later selections. In the case of drones, (at the time of laying): the queen withholds fertilization from those eggs. They then develop as male drones. Worker bees, which are sexually undeveloped females, grow from normally fertilized eggs.

But when a need for additional queens arrives – as when it is time to split the hive, for instance – several larvae from fertilized eggs are selected to receive a special diet of “royal jelly.” This “royal jelly” is a unique food substance produced by glands in the heads of worker bees. Without it, the fertilized eggs grow into more worker bees. With it the larvae develop sexually and become queens.

So we see that the life of a hive depends upon a very complex chain of circumstances: three types of bees are essential for the continuance of life – queens, drones and workers. Without any one of the types, the hive would quickly die. Yet all three begin as identical eggs. Somehow the queen “knows” which to fertilize and which not to fertilize. Somehow the nursery attendant bees know which larvae to feed royal jelly, and which not to. Somehow the workers know how to build wax cells to hold honey and larvae. Somehow the workers have built-in pollen baskets on their legs. Somehow the drones develop from unfertilized eggs – but grow up with the capacity to produce fertility!

So many “somehows”! It is impossible to relate them all to a gradual evolutionary process, in which minute change after minute change took place over eons of time. It all had to happen in an extremely short time-frame, or the world would never have known bees!

But while this is a major headache for believers in evolution, it is no problem at all if we take God at His word, as the Creator of all things. In the Bible we read: “God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25)

In other words, God created each form of life as unique. None has to fit into some supposed evolutionary “ladder;” and this accounts for the amazing diversity of life forms and life processes we find upon the earth.

How wonderful it is to be assured that we ourselves are put on earth by God’s direct fiat, and not by some random happenstance of fate! We can rejoice with David, the sweet singer of Israel, that “Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139:16)

And just as God told the prophet Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you…” (Jeremiah 1:5), so also did He know us as individuals, and call us into being.

Furthermore, Jesus Christ expressly stated that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God’s consent – and, He said we are of much greater value in God’s eyes than many sparrows! Be comforted, therefore, and seek unto God for meaning in your life, and for salvation, which He freely offers through His Son, Christ Jesus.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

Birds which migrate vast distances each year have long been a marvel to interested observers – but even more marvelous is a migrating butterfly: Danaus plexippus, commonly called the Monarch butterfly.

Monarchs travel up to 3,000 miles every autumn, to gather by the millions in a small forest in central Mexico, coming from most areas of the United States and Canada. But the truly amazing thing about this annual migration is that no Monarch has ever made the round trip! Every one of the millions of winged travelers is on a first-time, one-time journey. They have no experienced leaders or scouts, and they start from thousands of locations spread across a large continent; yet they will all come together in a remote mountain area of approximately 15 square miles! And there they will cover the trees in a shimmering restless blanket of orange-black beauty, throughout the winter months.

When April signals their time of departure, the Monarchs will wake from their stupor and begin the long trek back north. But they will never reach the northern summer feeding grounds. Instead, they will mate en route, and die soon after. Their eggs will hatch into hungry caterpillars, who will feast upon milkweed leaves for several weeks before entering the chrysalis stage. Within a week or two, an adult Monarch will struggle out of the chrysalis husk, and after its wings dry and harden, it is ready to feed – and, shortly, to mate again, and die.

Altogether, one or two additional generations will exist briefly before the final, longer-lived migratory generation arrives. This end-of-summer generation will build up its energy reserves for the September departure and the long trip south.

Somehow they will know their route and their destination – though no human has penetrated this mystery. We know there can be no first-hand experience, and no transmitted knowledge. Their wings do contain slight amounts of magnetite, an iron compound which scientists speculate may give them an orientation with the earth’s magnetic field – but as they are spread across thousands of miles from east to west, there would be huge differences in their individual “compass-headings.”

Man may wonder about the influence of prevailing winds, and ask whether insects can navigate by the starts… but the surest and best answer is that the Creator who made them has given them all that they need to survive as a species. God said in the beginning: “To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food…” (Genesis 1:30). And again the Bible acknowledges: “…Yahweh, you preserve man and animal.” (Psalm 36:6).

God has given man the intelligence to discover some of the workings of this great earth which He fashioned for us… and it is good to learn His ways after Him. But it is far better to learn this truth from the Bible: “The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145:15-16)

Truly, the God who implants the necessary wisdom in the Monarch butterflies also cares for us. The Son of God, Christ Jesus, declared: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father: but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matthew 10:29-31 ASV) God does care for His children.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

The worker bee is a dedicated servant of the hive. Throughout its short life – only 4 or 5 weeks in the busy seasons – it gives of itself incessantly and unselfishly.

Indeed, if necessary it will literally pour out its life in defending the hive against intrusions of man or animal. The bee’s stinger is barbed, like a harpoon, and the bee cannot pull it loose from flesh or hide. Instead, the stinger detaches from the bee’s body, together with its associated nerve center and poison gland. The result is that the gland continues to pump poison into the intruder until the stinger is removed. The bee, however, has suffered a mortal wound, and soon dies. (“The Dancing Bees,” Karl von Frisch, Harcourt, Brace & Co., NY, 1955, pp. 38-39.)

This willingness to destroy itself for the good of the colony, and its built-in weapon system adapted to such destruction, are both typical of the way bees are fitted to their life work. The young adult worker begins working as soon as she climbs out of her brood cell. Her tasks, however, will vary according to a progression of adaptations within her body, which are exactly suited to the needs of the hive.

Her very first duty will be to clean brood cells for the next generation, and she may start by tidying up her own chamber. Later she will help keep occupied brood cells warm, and meanwhile thoroughly explore the interior of the hive.

But after a few days, a food-producing gland in her head becomes fully developed, and the young worker then becomes a wet-nurse, or foster mother, to hungry larvae. She will take upon herself the rearing of two or three larva, feeding them between two and three thousand times each, during the six days of the larval state. During this time they will increase 500-fold in weight! (ibid, p. 22.)

The vast majority of larvae will be fed “royal jelly” from the nurses’ food-glands for only the first two days. Thereafter they will receive a mixture of honey and pollen. Only in the case of future queens are specially selected larvae fed entirely upon royal jelly. (This difference in diet appears to be the sole factor in the creation of sexually mature potential queens, instead of workers, whose sexual apparatus does not mature.)

A new phase of the worker’s career begins about the 10th day of her life. By this time her feeding gland has shrunk into impotency, and wax-producing glands on her abdomen have come into production. She now begins house-keeping duties, including construction and repair of the waxy cells comprising the hive. She will also help receive incoming loads of nectar and pollen from the foraging bees and store these foods in the proper cells.

Other duties shared by her generation include keeping the hive clean by removing refuse, including the bodies of bees which have died. Toward the end of this phase, which lasts for about 10 days, some of her group will become hive guards. The will examine all incoming bees to make sure they are of that hive, attack intruding wasps and other honey-robbers, and deliver the first attack on larger threats to hive security.

At the end of the housekeeping phase, the worker bee graduates to forager status. If her generation lives in the spring or summer, she will spent the rest of her life searching for food for the colony. (Bees reared it the autumn usually live over the winter in temperate zones, and thus may live for several months. The hive is much less active then, and they do not wear themselves out so quickly.)

This specialization of labor, coinciding with the needed physical changes to make the work possible, cannot be an accident. Every element of life in the hive is finely tuned to the good of all.

It is also will worth noting that what is done to the good of the hive also turns out to be for the good of all nature, for the foraging bees play a vital role in pollinating the flowers they visit. Thus we see that an individual bee’s existence is a tiny but important part of a larger entity – the colony – which in turn has its part to play in a still larger relationship. And, if we trace the relationship further we would see that pollination of flowering plants is an important link in the world’s food chain. Bees do far more than provide honey for man’s sweet tooth!

Surely it is evident that a master-design lies behind such intricate relationships, on so many levels. There is such harmony, such inter-meshing of lifestyles, that all nature unknowingly works in harness together to maintain the habitat for all.

Who is the master designer? There can be only one, and He is God. The Psalmist recognized this fully when he said: “The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.” (Psalm 104:21) Yes, even powerful lions in their prime fit into God’s pattern and are subject to the limitations He places.

Man also is a part of God’s plan. In fact, the Bible indicates we are the purpose for it all. God created us to fellowship with Himself. It is His good pleasure that we should know Him. And when we do, we will take our rightful role in His grand design, just as does the selfless bee.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)

We are what we are. We are male of female, short or tall, and there is nothing we can do about it. We are the product, physically, of the combination of the genes of our parents, and their parents before them. But which of us has not at some time wished we could be smarter, perhaps, or better looking? Or taller.

The greatest Teacher who ever lived took cognizance of this when He said: “Which of you, by being anxious, can add one moment to his lifespan?” (Matthew 6:27) The answer, of course, is “No one.”

Yet there is a creature which can change not only its stature (size) but also its coloration, habits and to some extent its shape. This creature is the locust: more particularly, the locust of the Near-East and Africa (Schistocerca gregaria).

Extensive research has determined that locust hatchlings grow up to be either the solitary type or the swarming type. If the solitary type, the adults will wear subdued greens and yellows, and look a great deal like ordinary grasshoppers. They will be active mainly at night, and if they migrate at all it will be done in the dark.

But if they grow up as swarmers, they will develop longer wings, greater size, much brighter dress (consisting of brighter yellows plus pinks and reds), and they will feed and migrate during daylight hours. Swarming locusts will also delay sexual maturity for as much a six months, which is a very long time for insects whose life is normally less than a year.

These swarming locusts may take to the air by the tens of millions, in dense rolling swarms which may tower 2 ½ miles high, and cover 100 square miles or more. One swarm observed in Kenya covered 385 square miles! They may travel for more than 3,000 miles. And if they can find sufficient food, every locust in the swarm will eat its own weight in green stuff every day along the way! No wonder they are so feared.

Why do they swarm? And what triggers the difference in the way the young develop? Students of the locust have learned that the immediate environment is the key. Locust eggs must have moisture to hatch, and growing insects require large amounts of green food to sustain them.

If food is abundant when the young emerge, they will grow up as the solitary type, and will not leave the area. But if moisture is scant and food scarce, the young hoppers will begin to migrate even before gaining their wings, and they will take on the physical characteristics which better fit them for the exertions of extended migration.

Once formed into a swarm, the locusts will go on until they find a zone of adequate rainfall to accommodate their ravenous appetites and to ensure a good hatch of their eggs. After reproduction has taken place, the swarm gradually dies out.

We note that the choice of which type they will become is not up to the locusts. It is not by their “taking thought.” Neither did the earliest locusts “take thought” and evolve this potential for change. Every time the transformation is needed, it is needed in full and immediately, and this has been true from the beginning.

Neither did this unique response which locusts are able to make “just happen.” Nothing “just happens.” There is a reason for everything under – and over – the sun. Locusts were endowed with these qualities by the One who brought them into existence.

Just so were we also endowed with the qualities which make us unique. We, too, can adapt to life as we find it, thanks to God who made us. More than this, we can come to know God not only as the Creator of all things, but also as our Father in heaven, for to this end God created man.

The final destiny of those who know and love God is foretold in the Bible: “I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, “Behold, God’s dwelling is with people, and he will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away.”” (Revelation 21:3-4)

But before anyone can come to this relationship with God, there must be a transformation inside, even greater than the change of the locust. God says: “…I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also who is of a contrite and humble spirit…” (Isaiah 57:15)

Let us come to Him as humble and repentant seekers, seeking Him through His Son, Christ Jesus, as His Word instructs. If we do so, God has promised that He will walk with us and be our God.

(All Scripture is quoted from the World English Bible translation.)