God's creation articles
Ever-Present Beetles

Thousands of the world's beetles keep hidden from their enemies, often living in almost total darkness. But they are never hidden from the Lord God their Creator who knows about each one of them. The death watch beetle no doubt considers itself well hidden as it bores into wood or books. Its stomach has two tiny pockets containing yeast cells that help digest this kind of food.

The larva of the oil beetle, hatching from an egg laid near a flowering plant, is quite a hitch-hiker. Immediately after birth it climbs to the flower and waits for a bee to arrive. Leaping onto the bee's back and clinging to its hairs, it is carried to the hive where it drops off and finds there a good supply of sweet food as it grows. How do you suppose it learned to do this? Each one could never discover this same arrangement by itself. No, it is part of the wise instinct the Creator gave it.

The tiny braconid beetle is an enemy of the tomato hornworm and goes after them this way: The female beetle lays eggs under the skin of the worms, and the eggs hatch into maggots which eat the flesh of the worms. Tomato growers appreciate this good service.

Beetles are found in strange places, but none stranger than the head stander beetles. They live in certain sand dunes along the African seacoast where temperatures reach 150º through the day. Like all living things these beetles require moisture to endure the hot sand, but there is seldom any rain in these deserts. However the Creator supplied them with an unusual ability to get water. Just before dawn as the sea fog moves in from the ocean, the head standers climb to the top of a sand dune. They lift themselves up on their short front legs and long, spindly hind legs, pointing their heads down and turning their bodies toward the foggy breeze. They wait patiently, and soon small water droplets from the fog wet their hard backs, and drops roll down their legs into their mouths for a cool drink of pure water!

None of these beetles could achieve their surprising ways of life by gradually developing them over centuries of time. The species could not have survived until fully equipped for their amazing ways of sustaining life. How nice to know that the Lord God, the Creator of all, had even the needs of lowly beetles in His purposes when placing them on the earth.

We know every human is more wonderfully made than any other creature. In addition, we have an everlasting soul, a mind and a heart that can learn of and accept God's wonderful love. That love has provided an eternal home in heaven for each one who admits to God that he or she is a sinner and accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. Have you done this?

Copied with permission from Messages of God's Love. More articles in The Wonders of God's Creation (Volume 1-4) by Sidney R. Gill, also published by Bible Truth Publishers, Addison, IL 60101.

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