JEWEL OF DEATH
Genesis 2:17
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The consequences of man's sin have touched every part of the creation. After God made us, He declared His entire creation "very good," which by God's standards is perfect. But human rebellion against God set at work the forces of death throughout the creation. The gnat like jewel wasp is a good example of this. Under the microscope the jewel wasp lives up to its name, showing patterns of iridescent colors that change with the light. But that's about all there is about the jewel wasp that reflects its perfect creation.
The female jewel wasp, ready to lay her eggs, seeks out fly pupae, most readily found in the corpses of dead animals. There she injects the fly pupae with venom to kill them and then lays 20 to 40 eggs in each pupa. After one or two days, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings feed. The males, which have no wings, mate with the females and die where they were born. The females then fly off to repeat the cycle. Interestingly, the female has a special organ which controls whether the egg she lays is fertilized or not fertilized. Unfertilized eggs result in sons, while fertilized eggs result in daughters. This works to balance out the population.
Though the jewel wasp is beautiful and has amazing abilities, it has taken over the necessary job of corpse disposal. Thankfully, in Christ we can eagerly await that day when Christ, Who has overcome death, will return to give to all who believe in Him the blessings of eternal life.
Lord, I thank You for earning salvation for me. I long for Your return. Amen.
Jack Werren, "Genetic Invasion of the Insect Body Snatchers", Natural History, 6/94, p. 36. Photo: Jewel wasp. Courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim. (GNU-FREE 1.2)
Genesis 2:17
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
The consequences of man's sin have touched every part of the creation. After God made us, He declared His entire creation "very good," which by God's standards is perfect. But human rebellion against God set at work the forces of death throughout the creation. The gnat like jewel wasp is a good example of this. Under the microscope the jewel wasp lives up to its name, showing patterns of iridescent colors that change with the light. But that's about all there is about the jewel wasp that reflects its perfect creation.
The female jewel wasp, ready to lay her eggs, seeks out fly pupae, most readily found in the corpses of dead animals. There she injects the fly pupae with venom to kill them and then lays 20 to 40 eggs in each pupa. After one or two days, the eggs hatch and the hatchlings feed. The males, which have no wings, mate with the females and die where they were born. The females then fly off to repeat the cycle. Interestingly, the female has a special organ which controls whether the egg she lays is fertilized or not fertilized. Unfertilized eggs result in sons, while fertilized eggs result in daughters. This works to balance out the population.
Though the jewel wasp is beautiful and has amazing abilities, it has taken over the necessary job of corpse disposal. Thankfully, in Christ we can eagerly await that day when Christ, Who has overcome death, will return to give to all who believe in Him the blessings of eternal life.
Lord, I thank You for earning salvation for me. I long for Your return. Amen.
Jack Werren, "Genetic Invasion of the Insect Body Snatchers", Natural History, 6/94, p. 36. Photo: Jewel wasp. Courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim. (GNU-FREE 1.2)
IS YOUR MEMORY THIS GOOD?
Luke 12:24
"Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"
Do you remember how much milk is in your refrigerator? Do you remember which leftovers you have in there, and where you put them? This kind of memory is called episodic memory. It allows you to travel back in time with your mind to remember the details of a past action. Until now, it was thought that only humans had this kind of memory, although some researchers were convinced that monkeys and rats had episodic memory.
Now, to researchers' surprise, several species of birds that store food have convincingly displayed episodic memory and more. The scrub jays' favorite food is waxmoth larvae. Researchers allowed some of the jays to learn that the larvae rot after a few days. The jays also like peanuts. Researchers gave scrub jays the larvae to hide in sand filled ice cube trays. After five days the jays were given peanuts to hide. Later, the birds were allowed to collect their buried treasures. The birds who had learned that the larvae rotted after a couple of days didn't even bother to collect them. They looked only for peanuts, and remembered where to look for them. The jays who didn't know that the larvae rotted looked for them first.
In another research project, Clark's nutcrackers remembered where they had buried food morsels nine months earlier. This is something evolutionary scientists never expected in what they consider animals that are lower forms of life than we are. God has seen to the food needs of these species by not only providing them with food, but also by giving them extraordinary episodic memory like ours.
I remember and thank You for all Your goodness to me, Lord. Amen.
S. Milius, "Birds can remember what, where, and when", Science News, v. 154, p. 181. Photo: Florida scrub jay. (PD)
Luke 12:24
"Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?"
Do you remember how much milk is in your refrigerator? Do you remember which leftovers you have in there, and where you put them? This kind of memory is called episodic memory. It allows you to travel back in time with your mind to remember the details of a past action. Until now, it was thought that only humans had this kind of memory, although some researchers were convinced that monkeys and rats had episodic memory.
Now, to researchers' surprise, several species of birds that store food have convincingly displayed episodic memory and more. The scrub jays' favorite food is waxmoth larvae. Researchers allowed some of the jays to learn that the larvae rot after a few days. The jays also like peanuts. Researchers gave scrub jays the larvae to hide in sand filled ice cube trays. After five days the jays were given peanuts to hide. Later, the birds were allowed to collect their buried treasures. The birds who had learned that the larvae rotted after a couple of days didn't even bother to collect them. They looked only for peanuts, and remembered where to look for them. The jays who didn't know that the larvae rotted looked for them first.
In another research project, Clark's nutcrackers remembered where they had buried food morsels nine months earlier. This is something evolutionary scientists never expected in what they consider animals that are lower forms of life than we are. God has seen to the food needs of these species by not only providing them with food, but also by giving them extraordinary episodic memory like ours.
I remember and thank You for all Your goodness to me, Lord. Amen.
S. Milius, "Birds can remember what, where, and when", Science News, v. 154, p. 181. Photo: Florida scrub jay. (PD)
DECEIT IS CUCKOO
Proverbs 20:17
"Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel."
You may be aware that the common cuckoo does not feed or raise its own young. Instead, it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. The adoptive parents feed and raise the young cuckoo as their own until the cuckoo gets larger than the foster parents and flies away without so much as a "thank you."
One common adoptive parent for the young cuckoos is the reed warbler, whose behavior pattern is quite different from the cuckoos. For example, reed warbler parents recognize hungry baby birds by their persistent calling. Cuckoos typically lay but one egg in an adoptive nest. Once this egg hatches, the young cuckoo throws the reed warbler eggs out of the nest. So how does one little baby cuckoo manage to convince the parent reed warbler that it is half a dozen reed warbler babies to be fed? Researchers have finally learned the amazing answer to that question. They say that the baby cuckoo fools its adoptive parents by sounding like as many as eight baby reed warblers. The act is so convincing that it gets all the food it wants.
Who teaches the baby cuckoos this trick? Certainly not the mother cuckoo who, incidentally, misses out on all the fulfillment of family life. The cuckoo reminds us that deceit robs us of good experiences in our lives. That's why it is comforting when our perfect God of truth tells us that He never changes.
Forgive me, dear Father, for any deceit in my life, and help me to live a life of truth and honesty. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
L.H., "Cuckoos beg doggedly to trick hosts", Science News, 3/6/99, v. 155, p. 158. Photo: Guira cuckoo. Courtesy of Aaron Siirila. (CC-BY-SA 2.5)
Proverbs 20:17
"Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel."
You may be aware that the common cuckoo does not feed or raise its own young. Instead, it lays its eggs in the nests of other birds. The adoptive parents feed and raise the young cuckoo as their own until the cuckoo gets larger than the foster parents and flies away without so much as a "thank you."
One common adoptive parent for the young cuckoos is the reed warbler, whose behavior pattern is quite different from the cuckoos. For example, reed warbler parents recognize hungry baby birds by their persistent calling. Cuckoos typically lay but one egg in an adoptive nest. Once this egg hatches, the young cuckoo throws the reed warbler eggs out of the nest. So how does one little baby cuckoo manage to convince the parent reed warbler that it is half a dozen reed warbler babies to be fed? Researchers have finally learned the amazing answer to that question. They say that the baby cuckoo fools its adoptive parents by sounding like as many as eight baby reed warblers. The act is so convincing that it gets all the food it wants.
Who teaches the baby cuckoos this trick? Certainly not the mother cuckoo who, incidentally, misses out on all the fulfillment of family life. The cuckoo reminds us that deceit robs us of good experiences in our lives. That's why it is comforting when our perfect God of truth tells us that He never changes.
Forgive me, dear Father, for any deceit in my life, and help me to live a life of truth and honesty. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
L.H., "Cuckoos beg doggedly to trick hosts", Science News, 3/6/99, v. 155, p. 158. Photo: Guira cuckoo. Courtesy of Aaron Siirila. (CC-BY-SA 2.5)
THE GOLDEN MINUTE
Daniel 3:1a
"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits."
Why do 60 seconds make a minute? Why does an hour have 60 minutes? After all, there are no natural reasons for this. A year is a natural time measurement, based on the sun's position in the sky. Well, believe it or not, there may be connection between the length of an hour and the golden statue built by King Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel and his friends refused to worship.
King Nebuchadnezzar's statue was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits wide. This is probably because the Babylonians used a counting system built on the number 60 and many of their buildings are measured in units or sub units of 60. By 1300 B.C. the Egyptians had divided the day into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Under this system, the 12 daylight hours were longer in the summer than winter daylight hours. But this system worked reasonably well, since Egyptians kept track of the time with sundials. It is believed that this system, along with the base-60 method of counting was borrowed from the Babylonians. The designation of 12 hours appears to have come from the Babylonians, since 12 is a factor of 60. The system passed on to the Greeks, who gave it to the Romans. It is thought that by the 13th century A.D., when accurate mechanical clocks were invented, the hour was finally divided into 60 minutes.
That our method of accounting time goes back over 3,000 years illustrates that ancient man was no less advanced than modern man. Over 3,000 years ago, man was smart enough to invent a time accounting system that serves us well today.
Dear Father, help me use the time You give me to Your glory. Amen.
Odyssey, Fall 1998, "Inventing Time, How on earth did we get a 60-minute hour?" p. 6. Illustration: Engraving on an eye stone of onyx with an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II. (PD)
Daniel 3:1a
"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits."
Why do 60 seconds make a minute? Why does an hour have 60 minutes? After all, there are no natural reasons for this. A year is a natural time measurement, based on the sun's position in the sky. Well, believe it or not, there may be connection between the length of an hour and the golden statue built by King Nebuchadnezzar that Daniel and his friends refused to worship.
King Nebuchadnezzar's statue was 60 cubits high and 6 cubits wide. This is probably because the Babylonians used a counting system built on the number 60 and many of their buildings are measured in units or sub units of 60. By 1300 B.C. the Egyptians had divided the day into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. Under this system, the 12 daylight hours were longer in the summer than winter daylight hours. But this system worked reasonably well, since Egyptians kept track of the time with sundials. It is believed that this system, along with the base-60 method of counting was borrowed from the Babylonians. The designation of 12 hours appears to have come from the Babylonians, since 12 is a factor of 60. The system passed on to the Greeks, who gave it to the Romans. It is thought that by the 13th century A.D., when accurate mechanical clocks were invented, the hour was finally divided into 60 minutes.
That our method of accounting time goes back over 3,000 years illustrates that ancient man was no less advanced than modern man. Over 3,000 years ago, man was smart enough to invent a time accounting system that serves us well today.
Dear Father, help me use the time You give me to Your glory. Amen.
Odyssey, Fall 1998, "Inventing Time, How on earth did we get a 60-minute hour?" p. 6. Illustration: Engraving on an eye stone of onyx with an inscription of Nebuchadnezzar II. (PD)
VOYAGER'S ENCOUNTER WITH NEPTUNE
Deuteronomy 4:19
"And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."
In August 1989, Voyager 2 made its contact with the planet Neptune nearly 3 billion miles from Earth. This was a tremendous technical achievement and enabled mankind to know a little more of the planetary system in which we all live.
But did Voyager learn anything relevant to Scripture? We found that Neptune is hundreds of degrees colder than any temperature ever recorded on Earth. Worse, storm winds on Neptune were measured at over 800 miles per hour! Voyager's first message to us should be obvious. Of the planets so far explored only the Earth has exactly the right conditions for life. Then something else, those beautiful rings of Neptune offer wonderful support for their creation only thousands of years ago as indicated by the Genesis account. Those rings are very delicate, finely balanced by the forces that sustain them, and if the solar system was really billions of years old, they should have collapsed millions of years ago.
Man may venture into space, but Earth is our home, and always will be. We will always long for that perfect garden in which we were placed by the Creator Who hoped for, and made us for, an intimate, personal relationship with Him. And that means that Man will always need the Good News of Jesus Christ through Whom we are restored, once again, to our wonderful Creator.
Heavenly Father, I thank You that I live in such an exciting age in which so many wonderful things are being learned about what You have made. Give me the words that will enable me to use these exciting discoveries to tell others about You and Your love for us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Photo: Voyager 2 launch on August 20, 1977. (PD)
Deuteronomy 4:19
"And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven."
In August 1989, Voyager 2 made its contact with the planet Neptune nearly 3 billion miles from Earth. This was a tremendous technical achievement and enabled mankind to know a little more of the planetary system in which we all live.
But did Voyager learn anything relevant to Scripture? We found that Neptune is hundreds of degrees colder than any temperature ever recorded on Earth. Worse, storm winds on Neptune were measured at over 800 miles per hour! Voyager's first message to us should be obvious. Of the planets so far explored only the Earth has exactly the right conditions for life. Then something else, those beautiful rings of Neptune offer wonderful support for their creation only thousands of years ago as indicated by the Genesis account. Those rings are very delicate, finely balanced by the forces that sustain them, and if the solar system was really billions of years old, they should have collapsed millions of years ago.
Man may venture into space, but Earth is our home, and always will be. We will always long for that perfect garden in which we were placed by the Creator Who hoped for, and made us for, an intimate, personal relationship with Him. And that means that Man will always need the Good News of Jesus Christ through Whom we are restored, once again, to our wonderful Creator.
Heavenly Father, I thank You that I live in such an exciting age in which so many wonderful things are being learned about what You have made. Give me the words that will enable me to use these exciting discoveries to tell others about You and Your love for us in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Photo: Voyager 2 launch on August 20, 1977. (PD)
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