Beetles and things

My daughter drew my attention to this Fiddler beetle consuming the nectar in the flowers on her Kurrajong creeper in her back yard. I just had to take its photo. Isn’t it beautifully designed? During the last year I have brought your attention to many of the creatures that were obviously designed by a wonderful intelligent mind. You will remember the caterpillar that turned into a butterfly within a couple of days. Well here is the caterpillar as green as grass, it eats leaves, has many legs, and here is the butterfly, it looks nothing like the caterpillar, only has four legs and sips nectar. Obviously if this plain green caterpillar turned into this beautiful butterfly whilst inside a completely sealed container called a chrysalis, then whoever made the caterpillar in the first place must have packed all the necessary ingredients into the caterpillar that are necessary to make the butterfly; nothing left out and nothing left over! Can you possibly imagine the intelligence needed to arrange that?

Then there was the egg; a similar story, the fertilised egg is packed with a yolk and clear fluid which contain all the elements necessary to make a complete chicken in a completely sealed container, nothing left out and nothing left over! I have illustrated an emu egg and chick, but it could be any bird’s egg or a lizard’s egg or a turtle’s egg because the same principle applies. Mostly we take all these things for granted because we are surrounded by them. The list is endless culminating in our own bodies with all the organs working in perfect unison with each other like the various instruments in an orchestra.

Who then is responsible for all this magnificence? Jesus is! “Oh come on” someone says “these things were there long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem”. Well that is true, but “Jesus as the Word of God” was the one involved with creation long before Bethlehem was established. Now before we go any further don’t expect to understand God’s makeup or how He works. You don’t understand the makeup of the Internet or how it works either and that is a lot simpler. If you look up Genesis chapter one you will see that God spoke everything into existence. Then if you look up the Gospel of John in the New Testament, chapter one confirms this by telling us that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....all things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made”. And verse 14 says: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us”. It is no wonder then that Jesus was able to walk on water, heal the sick and raise the dead because He was the “Word of God” in the flesh. The disciples started to “get the message” when “he stilled the storm” as they said “Who is this that the wind and the waves obey him?”He knew his authority too as when Phillip asked Him to “Show us the Father” He replied “he who has seen me has seen the Father, I and the Father are one”.

That being the case then it would have been “a walk in the park” for Jesus to have programmed the birds and reptiles etc to pack their eggs with the necessary ingredients, likewise there would not have been any problem with the butterfly.

As you think about this I hope that you will find it easier to believe in Jesus as the one who by his voluntary crucifixion can save all who Believe. I say “voluntary” because He said He could have called on legions of Angels to deliver Him, but He didn’t choose to do so because His crucifixion was needed in order to purchase our pardon from sin. If he had been just an ordinary good man, his crucifixion would not have helped you or me, lots of people have been crucified and that is a dreadful shame but their deaths achieved nothing much that would help us.

The theology here is “mind blowing” I know that, but if you read John’s gospel and for that matter the whole New Testament, everything will fall into place as “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God”.

Best wishes,  Tom.