Jewel # 388 (January 28, 2020)

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 Octopus

"The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.”  Psalm 145:9

In spite of its frightful appearance, the octopus is usually a very timid creature and will not attack a person unless he triess to invade its home.  There are more than 150 varieties of octopuses.  Some are less than an inch across, others are 30 feet or more from the tip of one outstretched tentacle to the tip of an opposite outstretched tentacle, but most are only about there feet across.

This odd resident of the ocean has a body with a large, dome-shaped head, containing not only its brain, but also its stomach and other organs.  These are covered by a membrane called a mantle.  It has huge, human-like eyes behind its mouth and a strong, parrot-type beak.

  

Eight snake-like tentacles stretch out from its body, each having on its underside about one hundred suction cups that attach themselves with a vice-like grip onto anything. The eight tentacles also act as feet to move along the ocean floor and as hands to pull up and over an underwater rock.

A large opening in the mantle is always moving, sucking water over its gills and out through a siphon.  This siphon can be pointed in any direction to provide jet propulsion.  It also squirts inky fluid to make a “smoke screen” when pursued.  Attached to the octopus’s skin are little bags of pigment.  When these bags are held open, various colours are exposed, which the octopus can change to appear striped, mottled or a a solid colour, to match its surroundings.  How wonderfully the Creator has designed this creature for is way of life deep in the ocean!

The octopus does have enemies—squid, whales and large eels.  As a result, it hunts at night.  In the day time it hides in a cave where it piles odd shells and rocks by the entrance.

Do you think God sees these octopuses deep on the ocean floor?  He certainly does.  The Bible tells us, “Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters” (Psalm 77:19).  God sees and cares for everything He has created, and He never takes His eye off them.

But He has a special care for you and me whom He has created “in His own image” (Genesis 1:27).  We are the only creatures invited to come to Him in faith.  His Word assures us that “the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows them that trust in Him”  (Nahum 1:7). 

If you have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you may say as the Apostle Paul did, “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans  8:38-39).            

Love you all - Grandpa