Jewel # 371 (August 23, 2019)

Cecropia                                    Luna

Monarch                                        Swallow Tail

“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

Butterfly and Moth Facts (Part 1)

“The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” Psalm 111:2

Butterflies and moths are often mistaken for one another, but there are several marked differences between them.  One way to tell them apart is that butterflies have a pair of black antennae that look like thin pieces of wire with black balls on the ends, while the antennae of moths are feathery and pretty.  Another way to tell them apart is to watch the as they land.  A butterfly at rest holds its wings upright over its body, while a moth lands with its wings wide open.  A butterfly has a tapered body, while a moth’s body is usually thick and hairy.  Another difference—butterflies are day fliers, while most moths fly only after dusk.

Butterflies and moths are often extremely pretty.  One moth in the eastern United States, called cecropia, is a beautiful blending of deep brown, tan and white over its large wings and oddly checkered body and is one of the largest in North America.  Another is the luna.  Its wings are a light green, but entirely circled with a dark brown border in front and light tan elsewhere, including its body.  The name luna (relating to the moon) tells us that it is active only at night.

One of the most outstanding and best-known butterflies is the monarch.  Great colonies of these, hatched during summer months in the United States and Canada, make quite a sight migrating in the fall to several places in California and Mexico, beautiful in their black-bordered, deep-orange wings and black bodies.  Their parents had flown in the opposite direction in the spring, but died before the fall.  How do you think the young ones know where to migrate or what direction to take without their parents to lead them?  This is just another example of the Creator’s care over all things He has created.  David wrote in Psalm 145:9, “The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.”  Incidentally, these young monarchs, fully grown through the winter months in the south, will return to the same northern spots the next spring, hatch new babies there and die.  This same pattern continues year after year.

Another lovely butterfly is the swallowtail, common in many North American gardens.  Its wings are a delicate yellow, bordered and marked in black when seen from above, but from below, the border has a front band of black, then deep blue, followed by more black, with a row of bright-red curved crescents.

David, who wrote many of the psalms, enjoyed thinking about creation, as the opening Bible verse shows.  He knew who made the world and everything in it and that it is only by the Lord God that all living things have been brought into the world and are cared for.

(To be continued)

Love you all - Grandpa    

Jewel # 370 (August 14, 2019)

Horny-toed Lizard                    Jumping Spider                                     Anableps 

Eyespot Grasshopper              Butterfly fish

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

Are Those Really Eyes?

“The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down.” Psalm 146:8.

The eyes of  many animals, birds and insects can perform in remarkable ways.  One of the most outstanding animals with unusual eyes is the horny-toed lizard, which makes its home in the deserts of Arizona.  It is an amazing creature not seen by many people.  This is a strange little fellow with a wrinkly brownish-tan body, capped with a pair of reddish ears on top of its horny, grim-faced head.  It also has two big areas of red flesh around its dark eyes.     

On occasions this lizard curls up into a wrinkly ball, its body resting on legs pulled underneath itself.  It confronts an enemy by sitting upright, and with its head raised, it will suddenly shoot out a series of dark red globs of blood over its head in such an amazing manner that the attacker is frightened away.  The bloody shots may shoot up six feet or more and can have a bad smell that makes the enemy leave it alone.

Another interesting example is the strange-looking jumping spider which has two big black eyes above its jaws and three secondary pairs of eyes as well.  It appears that the bigger eyes look ahead, and the smaller eyes see only what is behind.

A small fish called anableps spends much time at the water’s surface.  The upper half of its unusual eyes sees things in every direction above the surface, while at the same time the lower half sees only things below the surface.  Thus, while resting right at the surface, it can keep fully alert to everything in front, behind, above and below it.

The eyespot grasshopper has been provided with light-green round spots on the back of its dark brown body that look like huge eyes.  These keep enemies away that otherwise would attack it.  Something similar takes place with the silk moth, coloured mostly in bright red.  When a bird sneaks up from behind, it is suddenly frightened away when the moth, sensing it approach, opens its wings and two snake-like “eyes” are exposed.

The pretty yellow butterfly fish is often the target of larger fish.  On swimming closer, the larger fish discover two big, white-rimmed, coal-black “eyes” with a partly open mouth below then and turn away in fright.  But actually these are only markings.  The Creator provided these to preserve this pretty little fish from hungry enemies.  The actual eyes on the from of the fish are concealed by wide black stripes.

These are just a few of the many wonders of God’s creation.  Perhaps in the delights and wonders of heaven, we who know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour will hear from His lips about many other created wonders.

Will you be there?

Love you all - Grandpa

Jewel # 369 (August 5, 2019)

“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

What Goes On Inside a Beehive?

“We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her Children.”

1 Thessalonians 2:7

A beehive may hav 20,000 to 40,000 or more bees, including the all important queen, a few male (drone) bees and workers.  The whole activity of a hive centers around the queen.  She often lays 2000 eggs or more daily.  In addition to the queen’s area, the section of the hive set aside as a nursery is also very important.  Here the queen deposits the eggs, one to a cell.  While she does this, “nurse” bees feed her bee milk from glands in their heads and keep her spotlessly clean.

The nurses also take care of the eggs until they hatch into grubs.  Then they prepare “royal jelly” which is fed to the grubs for two days.  After this the diet is changed to a mixture of pollen and honey, called “bee bread.”  When a grub grows large enough to fill its cell, it weaves a silken web around itself, and a nurse makes a wax cover for the cell.  Twenty-one days later a fully developed bee comes out.

What responsibilities these nurse bees have!  Although they have no leader, each one seems to have its own duties and knows just what to do.  Such wonderful instincts were given to honeybees when the Lord God first created them, and they never change.

The hive workers also take nectar and pollen from the outside workers, called “foragers.”  They change it into honey, royal jelly or bee bread, as required, using special chemicals in their bodies.  Other workers are used as guards at the entrance of the hive.  In hot weather they all  work to make air conditioning by continually fanning their wings to circulate the air.  When it gets cold, they group together and do activities that raise the temperature to just the right degree.  Who do you think taught them to do these things?

Some of the eggs produce male bees, called “drones.”   These drones do not work and are fed by the workers.  Once a year the queen chooses one of them for a mate.  The workers then get rid of the remaining drones, killing then or driving them out of the hive.

At the end of two or three weeks, nurses give up their inside work and become foragers.  Their life span in this activity is only a month or so.  During this time each bee collects enough nectar to make a teaspoon and a half of honey.

The beehive and its busy bees provide an amazing display of God’s creation.  It shows us His power in preserving His works over the ages of time.  The activities of the bees are also an example for all of us who know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour.  We see how the bees work together and are never lazy.  This is just what the Bible  tells us to do:  “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

If you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, how good it is to encourage and work with others in ways that are pleasing to Him.

Love you all - Grandpa