Most everyone likes shrimp, but not everyone knows that the tasty shrimp in salads and casseroles is just the underpart of their broad tails.
There are over 2000 varieties throughout the world, including tiny brine shrimp in Utah's Great Salt Lake, an 18-inch, three-pound one m the Philippine islands, and skinny ghost shrimp found in the sand of some seashores. It is easy to confuse them with prawns. Although there are some large shrimp, the prawn is more than twice the size of the common kind and has a long saw-toothed beak compared with the sharp, short and smooth one of the shrimp.
The shrimp that finds its way to our tables inhabits America's shores by the billions, mostly in the Gulf of Mexico, but similar numbers are also under the Arctic ice. More than 10,000 boats constantly engage in taking thousands of tons monthly from the Gulf of Mexico. It might be thought that this would soon wipe them all out, but not so. The Creator has given them an interesting life pattern, providing a sure place in their salt water homes.
Although they prefer shallow shore waters, three times a year, on a night when a full moon is shining, the adult shrimp leave the shore areas and ride on an outgoing tide into deep water. There, before returning to their base, each female releases about half a million eggs so tiny it takes a microscope to see one. The eggs not devoured by fish, hatch out in 24 hours and after a few weeks reach a visible size and allow incoming tides to carry them to shore waters where, in six months, they reach full size. Soon they do exactly as their parents did before them—swim out to deep waters on moonlit nights, lay untold millions of eggs, and the cycle starts all over again.
So many billions of these hatch out that it would seem the water would be saturated with them, as it indeed would be if most were not eaten by fish and birds, or taken by trawler boats. Similar quantities hatching out in Arctic waters form a supply of rich food for fish, whales, penguins, seals, etc.
This is another example of the way the Creator provides for His creatures, as the Bible verse says, "These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That Thou givest them they gather." Psa. 104:27,2827These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. 28That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. (Psalm 104:27‑28). And it is not only fish, birds and animals that He provides for. Another Bible verse, speaking of the Lord Jesus, says of Him, "Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." Acts 14:1717Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:17).
Have you ever thanked Him for His care over you? Do you really know this wonderful Provider as your very own Lord and Savior?