Letters From Grandpa #249

LETTERS FROM GRANDPA #249 Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will feature some interesting facts about creation that I found many years ago in the paper “Does God Exist?” (718 E. Donmoyer Ave., S. Bend, IN 46614-1999). These 13 “quickies” came originally from a column by I. M. Boyd, Crown Syndicate, Inc. Publisher.

1. When a beaver builds the entrance to his lodge, he always take into account how thick the ice will be the next winter. Even though ice thickness varies, the beaver never misses. How does he know?

2. Honey ants store food by several workers gorging their abdomens to the size of cherries and attaching themselves to the roof of their burrows. They hang there motionless for the rest of their lives unless the colony needs the food. They are the emergency rations of the colony. How do they know?

3. Butterflies never try to fly until their bodies reach 81 degrees F. If they did, the material on their wings would come off, making them unable to move through the air. How do they know?

4. By your seventh birthday, your brain has reached 98% of its full size.

5. Houseflies hum in the key of F, but their wings beat at 20,700 beats per minute (345 Hz.). The wing beat is ultrasonic while the hum is audio.

6. Butterflies see wing marks on their mates by sensing ultraviolet light coming from those wings.

7. The air is 21 % oxygen. If it were 16%, you couldn’t build a fire because there would not be enough oxygen combining with that matter to give off heat and light.

8. A fish called a Mudskipper will see a piece of food on land. It then jumps out of the water, grabs a bite, and then goes back to the water.

9. Of the 4,500 species of mammals on the earth, only 16 have been domesticated.

10. When a female whale gives birth, she emits a certain “whistle”. Another female will rush to the scene and cut the umbilical cord. The two females will stay together for several weeks until the baby is secure, with the second whale acting as a midwife.

11. The common sunfish is the most prolific egg layer, producing 300 million eggs per spawning.

12. When bloodhounds track their quarry, they do so to get affection. They are trained by reward and thus lick the criminals that they track down.

13. The “scales” on birds’ legs are as distinctive as finger prints on humans. m These are just a few of the unlimited examples of God's creative genius.

m Have you heard about the grunion? This fish is famous for leaving the water at high tide, mating, and laying it’s eggs on dry land. How can this be?

m What about the bombardier beetle? It can mix two chemicals from it’s abdomen and spray a predator with a boiling hot concoction of foul smelling liquid.

m= Or what about the archerfish? It can shoot down land based animals and insects above the lake level by hitting them with a super accurate projectile of water.

m The monarch butterfly is of special interest as it goes through a “metamorphosis”. This is the very word used in Romans 12:2 to describe the “transformation” of a believer by the renewing of his mind. The way the ugly and destructive caterpillar is “transformed” into a beautiful and harmless butterfly is an accurate illustration of conversion. When the butterfly comes out of the cocoon is has anew mind and new abilities. It can fly an accurate route from Canada to Mexico and return to the very spot where it’s ancestors came from 3 or 4 generations before. The convert to Christ also has a new mind and new abilities.

Does it sound to you like these amazing facts happened by accident? Not really. The Hebrew word for “create” is “bara”. In Genesis 1:1 it describes the “creation” of heaven and earth. In Gen. 1:21 it describes the “creation” of animal life. In Gen. 1:27 it describes the “creation” of man. The Hebrew word for “made” in verses 7, 16, etc. is “asah”. It is different from creation. It merely means to “fashion” what God has already created.

Man, as you know, cannot “create” anything. We merely “fashion” something from what God has “created”. It is exciting to note, however, that the person who is born again is not merely refashioned by God, but actually a “new creation”. Please note: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17)

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce