Last week we reviewed how a fertile egg is formed, which is the beginning of how a chicken or bird comes into the world. What takes place after this fertile egg is formed and laid in the nest is also interesting.
The warmth of the mother hen’s body (99.5 degrees) is exactly right to incubate the egg so that the various parts of its little body can develop. First, the head develops. The next day a beating heart appears with blood vessels to carry food nutrients to the different parts of the chick as they form.
Then skin, bones, the brain, nerves and other parts develop as the days pass. By the eighth day everything is well formed, including areas where feathers will later appear. All this growth requires food supplied by the yolk and a constant supply of oxygen inside the egg. The Creator arranged this supply of oxygen by designing the shell with thousands of tiny pores that allow air to pass through.
Up to now the process has taken about three weeks. Then, while still being incubated by the mother and just two days before hatching, the fully formed chick begins to breathe with its lungs for the first time. But this requires more air than can enter through the shell. How is it going to get more air? The answer is that the flat spot at the rounded end of the egg (which we mentioned last week) has been holding extra air for just this purpose. As we noticed before, the little chick’s head has been formed right at this very spot. Its beak reaches into this spot where it finds enough air for the last two days of incubation.
The chick now begins to break out of its shell by pecking at it with a temporary, hard “egg tooth” that has grown on the end of its beak. This egg tooth is in place just long enough to help it escape from its shell and will drop off later.
How can anyone doubt that this wonderful process is the result of God’s creation? Aren’t you glad to know it was the Creator, the Lord God, who designed chickens and their eggs for our benefit?
The mother hen or bird anxiously waits for the little ones to hatch and then gives them her protecting care. The Lord Jesus was thinking of this when He spoke sadly about foolish people who would not accept His love and care (look at our opening verse). He wants to let His love rest on you and invites you to cast “all your care upon Him; for He careth for you” (1 Peter 5:77Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 Peter 5:7)).
Have you made Him happy by accepting this kind invitation?
ML-03/21/2010
Set 4