“The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.”
Psalm 111:2.
Butterflies and moths are often mistaken for one another, but there are several marked differences between them. One way to tell them apart is that butterflies have a pair of black antennae that look like thin pieces of wire with black balls on the ends, while moths’ antennae are feathery and pretty. Another way to tell them apart is to watch them land. A butterfly at rest holds its wings high over its body, while a moth immediately folds its wings flat against its body. A butterfly has a tapered body, while a moth’s body is usually thick and hairy. Also, butterflies are day fliers, while most moths fly only after dusk.
Butterflies and moths are often extremely pretty. One moth in the eastern United States, called cecropia, is a beautiful blending of deep brown, tan and white over its big wings and oddly checkered body and is one of the largest in North America. Another is the luna. Its wings are a light green, but entirely circled with a dark brown border in front and light tan elsewhere, including its body. The luna’s name tells us that it is active only at night.
One of the most outstanding and best-known butterflies is the monarch. Great colonies of these, hatched during summer months in Canada and Alaska, make quite a sight migrating in the fall to California and Mexico, beautiful in their black-bordered, deep-orange wings and black bodies. Their parents had flown in the opposite direction in the spring, but died before the fall. How do you think the little ones know where to migrate, or what direction to take without their parents to show them? This is just another example of the Creator’s care over all things He has created. David wrote in Psalm 145:9, “The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.” Incidentally, these young monarchs, fully grown through the winter, will return to the same northern spots the next spring, hatch new babies there and die. This same pattern continues year after year.
Another butterfly is the swallowtail, common in many North American gardens. Its wings are a delicate yellow, bordered and marked in black when seen from above, but from below the border has a front band of black, then deep blue, followed by more black, with a row of bright-red curved crescents.
David, who wrote many of the Psalms, enjoyed thinking about creation, as the opening Bible verse shows. He knew who made the world and everything in it and that it is only by the Lord God that all living things have been brought into the world and cared for.
(to be continued)
JANUARY 23, 1994
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.”
Psalm 50:15
ML-01/23/1994