God's creation articles
The Comical Puffin

The colorful bird called the puffin lives in Arctic waters of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It has a comical look because of its bright-orange, high, flattened bill with blue and red stripes. Its white, puffy face is topped with a black skullcap. Add to this a white body with a black collar and cape and stubby, orange legs and feet. Though it seems to be a strange-looking bird, it is well suited to its environment.

The puffin is an expert swimmer and diver and is skillful at catching seafood. Its beak can hold several fish, eels or shrimp crosswise while pursuing and catching others. No one understands how a puffin can manage this, but scientists think it holds the first catches with its tongue while opening its bill to catch others. Then the contents of its bill are brought to a rock where they are eaten.

Some colonies of puffins contain hundreds of thousands of birds. Sometimes they make their homes in burrows, but usually they build nests on cliff ledges where the female lays one white egg. The eggs are a remarkable example of the Creator's special care of their needs. Instead of being oval like chicken's or round like some woodland birds', puffins' eggs are round on only one end and pointed on the other.

Why do you think that the Lord God made their eggs such an odd shape? When He created the puffin He knew that their eggs would be laid on rocky ledges. A round or oval egg would easily roll off the ledge if left unattended even for a moment or two. However, a pointed egg just turns around in a small circle and can easily be returned to the nest. It takes almost a month for the chick to hatch. While the chick remains in the nest it is fed a continual diet of fish. When the tired parents leave the fat chick after about six to eight weeks of care and constant feeding, the young bird eventually goes to the edge of the cliff and flies down to the water. There it feels comfortably at home,and soon it is diving for its own food. It becomes an active part of the colony and later migrates south with them, returning in the spring to the same rock on which it was born.

These birds live in a remote part of the world but are not forgotten by the One who created them. The Lord God once said, "Consider the ravens [and other birds]; for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?" (Luke 12:24). He is making it plain that He thinks more highly of human beings than of the rest of His creatures. He has shown this by giving us a never-dying soul and a home in heaven for those who trust in Him.

But because we are sinners and our sins have separated us from God, in order to go to heaven, it is necessary for each one of us to acknowledge that we need our sins forgiven and to confess that the Lord Jesus is the only One who can save us. Have you done this? Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour?

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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