Near the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific Ocean there is an unusual aquatic worm that lives on the coral about six feet below the surface. Great numbers of these worms leave their coral homes only once a year.
Exactly at midnight at the last quarter of the October moon each year, they suddenly loosen themselves from the coral and rise to the surface where they make preparations for giving birth to a number of little ones. Then at eight o’clock that morning, they all drop back down to their coral homes, where they will remain another 12 months. Then they will go through the same activities at exactly the same time.
Natives of that area have long known of this cycle, and many are in their boats waiting, not only to see them, but to catch great quantities with their nets to take home or sell, for they make a tasty meal. Exactly one year later, to the very day and hour, this will take place again.
Without a calendar or clock, how do these unusual creatures of the sea know the exact moment to do this? The only correct answer is that God, their Creator, gave them this ability and has kept them in His care over the vast number of years since He created them.
Another interesting little fish, that may be seen in some aquariums, has been given a name almost bigger than itself, Phyrrilhima Filamentoes. Being so tiny, they are usually raised in glass bowls.
When the female fish lays an egg, she seems to know the bottom of the bowl is not the best place to leave it, so she attaches it with a sticky substance from her mouth onto the side of the glass bowl, about an inch and a half above the water.
Having done this, she somehow realizes the egg must be kept moist or it will dry up and die. She takes care of the problem with a quick flip of her tail every time she swims under the egg, sending a bit of water over the egg. And this is no small job, as she does this several times each minute for about four days, until the egg hatches. The baby fish slides down the glass and thereafter is taken care of in a more usual way.
Many books could be filled with wonderful accounts of how God, the Creator, has taken pleasure in all things, visible and invisible, which He has placed on the earth. All have been designed by Him and continue on in the same pattern of life that He originally gave them.
When we think of the wonders of His creation, should we not praise Him for all His wonderful works, as the Bible verse at the beginning tells us?
OCTOBER 30, 1994
ML-10/30/1994