The Lord God is not only the Creator of the beautiful and spectacular things of nature that we see, but the above verse includes the many things we are not even aware of. One of the world’s largest insects, called the giant water bug, is one of these.
These insects live in tropical regions, and some are found in North America. Most are two inches or more in length. They can fly, but since their wide flat bodies float, they usually stay close to their homes in ponds or lakeshores where they prefer quiet water.
Their front legs are wide and flat with sharp edges and are helpful in capturing insects and even fish as big as themselves. Hind legs provide paddle-like power for fast swimming on or below the surface. Their bite can produce a painful swelling, so anyone collecting them should be careful.
The male of one variety allows his mate to spray his back with a glue from her body, and then she lays 100 or more eggs on it. He carries these around for ten days, until they hatch. Other species glue their eggs on water plants.
Although not aware of it, water bugs are always under the watchful eye of their Creator and serve a useful purpose in destroying many harmful insects.
Another insect that lives in a watery home is the damselfly, which looks like a small dragonfly. The female lays her eggs in shallow water among the weeds. Sad to say, often a tiny wasp named polynema, which is about the size of a grain of rice, is likely to show up. Using paddle-like wings as oars, the female dives down to lay eggs, depositing one on each of the damselfly’s eggs already there. Then she swims to the surface and flies off.
By the time the damselfly’s eggs hatch into nymphs that will remain under water for some time, the polynema’s eggs placed on them have changed into worm-like grubs that slowly eat their hosts, until they become full-grown wasps and fly into the air. But many little damselflies will never become full-grown, because their intruder’s hunger has killed them.
You might ask, “Did God create polynemas too?” Yes, but when He created them they were not harmful in any way. Their harmful change was the result of sin coming into the world - all created things have been affected by sin.
But the time is coming, after all believing Christians are taken to heaven and God’s judgment against wickedness and evil has taken place on the earth, that there will again be a peaceful creation. If you are one who knows the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, you will be in that happy home above, looking down on the lovely new creation. Will you be one of those up there?
SEPTEMBER 20, 1998
ML-09/20/1998