God’s Amazing Creatures

Day #20

I got asked to fill in for Sunday School a few weeks ago.

It was a geography class, which I’d never taught before and I feared it was going to be SUPER boring.

I’m used to teaching Crafts
(yay!)
with the occasional Drama
(so fun)
and sometimes I help my friend Beth teach Movies
(John Boy Walton was the voice of one of the characters! Paul or Peter, I can’t remember.)

I looked at the material with low expectations and was completely and very pleasantly surprised!

We were in Genesis talking about creation. Here’s a part of the lesson plan:

“God didn’t need to create the universe--He wanted to! Why? Because God is love, He wanted to express His love by creating the beautiful earth and us, His children.”

Isn’t that awesome?

We went on to talk about the wonders of our world and some of its amazing creatures.

This was SO MUCH MORE FUN than I’d ever would’ve guessed.

And I learned some things.

We talked about 5 different animals:

1. The uakari (pronounced “wa-kar-ee”) monkey.

It’s found in Peru and Brazil and it’s face is always red but gets even redder when it is agitated or angry.

Can you relate?

 I may or may not have looked similar to this when I discovered my eyeliner 

had been used up and THROWN AWAY without my knowledge 

by someone I GAVE BIRTH TO.

While I couldn’t find anything specific to this, I’m wondering if a predator like a tiger would stop in its tracks before eating a red-face monkey?

Seems like it would taste bad, wouldn’t it?

2.  The Sloth.

This cute thing has a super slow metabolism which only allows it to move about slowly. 

About 6 feet a minute slow. 

I had the kids line up against the wall of the classroom and used my teen helper as the 6 foot marker (by lying down on the ground). 

I timed the kids walking to the end of my helper. They had an ENTIRE minute to do it and it was excruciatingly long! One kid, just gave up and finished with plenty of time left.

Good thing the sloth has a 10-12 inch tongue reach so it can still eat leaves from its stationery position in a tree.

3.  The King Penguin.

The amazing thing about the King Penguin is that after the female lays the egg, the father rests the egg on his feet, tucked under the feathers of its stomach for two whole months until it hatches. 

And this is all in the world’s coldest climate. 

After the egg hatches the dad feeds the baby by regurgitation until the mother returns.

4.  The Dart Poison Frog

The bright color of these frogs is an advertisement to its predators that it is poisonous and not to mess with them. 

One frog can kill up to 20 men and 10,000 mice.

That’s an advertisement worth heeding.

5.  The Bombardier Beetle.

This is the most amazing of all the creatures--at least to me. 

The Bombardier Beetle has a reservoir in its belly and when threatened, mixes two gasses in that reservoir that heat to the boiling point and then shoots this hot stuff OUT OF ITS BEHIND at its predator.

It scalds and can even kill its enemies.

No red-faced scare tactic.

No bright-colored advertisement.

Just SQUIRT.

You are dead.

Just ponder that for a moment…

They have an explosion chamber, people!

It usually directs its behind TOWARDS its enemy, 

but in a pinch, 

can do a BETWEEN THE LEGS 

squirt maneuver like in the first beetle picture above.

Oh! And they are self-healing in case they accidentally squirt
themselves with their scalding gas water.

Rock star!

My class shared my awe of this Bombardier Beetle and one little girl asked me to look up on my phone where they lived.

The live in every continent but Antarctica.

So they live right here in the woodlands and grasses of the USA!

They are only 1 1/2” long so I’m not sure how much, if any, discomfort we’d feel if we ever got on the bad side of a Bombardier.

But isn't that something?

The maker of our universe, the God who IS love, made all of it.

The sky, the stars, and ALL the creatures above as an expression of His love.

He loves the Uakari so much that He painted his face red to protect it.

He loves the Sloth so much that He equipped it with a long tongue 

so it never has to miss a meal for being the last one to the table.

He loves the King Penguin so much that He involves the mother 

AND the father in the nesting and nurturing of the baby.

He loves the Dart Poison Frog so much that He made it understood 

to the rest of the forest that its beautiful color means trouble.

He loves the Bombardier Beetle so much that he gave this tiny insect 

a powerful way of protecting itself. 

I.am.in.awe. 

Get this:

 the God who loves these creatures so much and with such tender detail,
loves us EVEN MORE.

I am so glad I got asked to teach that class.

I’m the one who learned something.