Jewel # 331 (August 27, 2018)

Fairy Fly

Ants

Walking Stick

“And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up MY JEWELS.”

(Malachi 3:17)

To my dear Grandchildren

The World of Insects (Part 1)

“Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; 

which have ears, and hear not: Fear ye not Me? saith the Lord.”

(Jeremiah 5:21-22)

Do you know how to tell if something you see crawling or flying is really an insect?  One quick way is to count its legs.  Insects always have six legs—no more and no less.  Spiders are not true insects because they have eight legs.

The word insecta means “in sections,” and this is also true.  All true insects have three body sections joined together—head, thorax and abdomen.  The legs and wings are supported by the middle thorax section.  Most insects have four wings, but some have only two, and some don’t have any.

When the  Lord God created the world and everything in it, He must have had much pleasure in creating the insects since they represent the largest group of visible forms of life.  There are over 900,000 species of living insects that are known.  Ants are probably the most abundant insect species on earth.  Some insects are so small they can only be seen through a microscope.  The fairy fly, for instance, is only one-hundredth of an inch long but is perfect in all its parts.  At the large end of the scale is the fifteen-inch insect calledwalking stick, found in New Guinea.

In proportion to their size, insects are the strongest creatures on earth.  In experiments, a bumble bee was able to pull more than 300 times its weight, and a beetle carried more that 800 times its weight!  When insects walk, their front and back legs on one side and their middle leg on the other side all move at the same time.  The Creator may have arranged this so they can keep their balance and are always firmly on the surface.

Most insects begin life as eggs, hatching as larvae or nymphs, then change to pupae and finally appear as fully formed adults.  Having no skeleton or bones, they have been given an armour-like skin for protection.  As they grow larger, this splits open and drops off, and a new protective skin soon hardens and replaces it.  This happens several times as the insect grows larger.

Insects breathe, but they have no lungs; they hear, but they have no ears; they smell, but have no noses; they have eyes, but they cannot close them.  Their hearts can pump blood backward or forward.  These strange features about insects remind us of the opening verse of this article.  The Lord scolded those people who refused to use their eyes to see His ways or to use their ears to hear His Word.  No wonder He called them “foolish people, and without understanding" (Jeremiah 5:21).  We hope none of you will be so foolish!  

“Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).  

(To be continued)

           

Love you all - Grandpa

Jewel # 330 (August 14, 2018)

“And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I

make up MY JEWELS”

(Malachi 3:17)

To my dear grandchildren

Meat Eating Plant

“The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand forever.”

(Isaiah 40:8) 

A meat-eating plant is the bladderwort, which grows in swampy areas.  Its stems, rooted in the muddy bottom, produce leaves and flowers that float on the water surface.  This plant attracts underwater bugs, some of which can’t resist taking a nibble of the bladder like swellings on its underwater stems.  But the moment they touch it a “door” flies open, and they are sucked inside.  The door closes behind them, and they turn into food for the bladderwort plant.

A similar water plant, the Venus fly-trap, grows in shallow ocean waters along the coasts of North and South Carolina.  A small white flower grows on the top of the plant, nestled in a tuft of leaves that have short, stiff hairs on their edges.  When a small object touches one of these hairs, the leaf snaps shut, capturing whatever touched it.  If it is a pebble or something indigestible, the leaf promptly releases it, but if it’s an insect, the leaf immediately begins to digest it, and the plant is nourished. 

A plant that does not actually eat insects is the beautifully flowered passion vine of South America.  It attracts insects that find its leaves and sweet nectar appealing, but the insects damage the plant when they get to the flowers.  So the Creator provided guardian ants that love the nectar that drips from the flowers, and they will not allow other insets to climb to it.  However, the ants can’t do anything about birds and insects that fly to the plant, wanting to get at the pollen deep inside each flower.  To safeguard the important pollen, each plant has been given a stiff, collar-like opening that can only be entered by the Creator’s specially designed, long, curved beak of an unusual hummingbird that He has arranged to live close by.

Another vine also in South America, the passifiora, has delicate, fragrant blue flowers and relies on bees to pollinate it.  But other insects find that when they chew its leaves, a poison is given off that makes them very uncomfortable.  Most of them seem to sense this and leave the passifiora alone.

It is interesting to hear of these and other amazing wonders of God’s creation, but we know they will not last forever.  He tells us in the Bible that all will be destroyed in a coming time when God is going to bring the world into judgment.  But there is one thing that will last forever.  Read the beginning verse again to find out what it is.  Do you obey it?

Love your all - Grandpa

Jewel # 329 (August 5, 2018)

“And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I

make up "MY JEWELS.”

(Malachi 3:17)

To my dear grandchildren

Lively Spider Monkeys (Part 2)

“God made the beast of the earth after his kind . . . and God saw that it was good.” 

(Genesis 1:25)

In the last message, the red-faced and variegated species of the spider monkey family were reviewed.  Today we will look at the wooly variety, which is, in many ways, the most remarkable member of this family. 

The wooly’s homelands are in the tropical forest regions of Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela.  Much of those forest areas have been cut down, and many are concerned that these creatures will soon have no place to live.  But efforts are underway to set aside areas for the protection of the wooly spider monkey.

An adult wooly, weighting over 30 pounds, will measure about 5 feet in length, including a long, fur-covered tail.  Except for a dark face, slightly flushed with red, its body fur appears quite light when it is standing facing you, but the fur on its back is much darker.  On some there are areas of deep orange as well, and they all have a cute appearance.

Their antics are amazing, such as dangling out in space from a slender branch, holding on only by a tail and one arm.  But when a mother leads her little one around, she is very careful.  To travel from one tree to another where the space is too great for the baby to swing, she will pull the branch to which it clings farther across, or she may leap to the other tree and work one of its branches across so the little one can safely reach it.

At other times, she will stretch herself over the area, grasping one side with a strong arm and the other side with her tail.  Then baby monkey merely walks across her body to make the crossover. At other times, a mother can be spotted with a little one clinging to her back as she scampers though the trees.

For the most part, woolies are peace-loving and playful, enjoying swinging back and forth under a high branch while hanging on only by their tails.  But they will chase away other species that try to compete in picking fruit from a tree, which including the leaves and flowers, represents most of their food.

Wherever seen, monkeys are interesting animals, and we can understand the Creator’s taking pleasure in creating them.  The Bible, God’s Word, does not teach that mankind evolved from monkeys and apes.  God’s Word, which is our only sure and true source of knowledge of such things, plainly teaches that when God made Adam, he was instantly a complete man.  If in all things we trust and believe what God says, we are always on safe ground.    

Love you all - Grandpa