The Wonders of God’s Creation
Every creature has God-given instincts, enabling it to survive and prosper even in hazardous conditions. What’s more, the instincts are already present when one is born and are not something that have to be developed, although they do grow sharper as they are used. Evidence of this is perhaps more noticeable in birds, fish, animals and insects than in other living things, but all have been amply provided for in this way by the Creator, according to their particular conditions of life.
For instance, one of the most outstanding examples is in the migration of birds (which we have considered in past issues). The more we learn of their long migratory flights so precisely taken over prairies, mountains and oceans and in all kinds of weather, the more we are amazed at the instincts provided by the Creator, enabling them to complete these flights. Or, consider the lovely monarch butterflies; the adults fly each summer from Mexico and California up into Canada and Alaska, lay their eggs and then die. But as the following winter approaches, the young ones that have never been beyond the place of their birth migrate south in huge numbers to the very trees which their parents left many months previously.
Space does not permit reminding ourselves of the great distances whales migrate, nor the long travels each year of caribou, antelope, yaks, gnu, salmon, eels and others throughout the world. All these migrations, and many, many others, are guided by God-given instincts and repeated faithfully by each new generation. The most intensive study of researchers cannot explain how these migrations can take place so accurately, but all we need to know is that they are part of God’s creation, and He has provided the instincts that bring about their travels.
But instincts work in other ways as well. The blinking of your eye as something suddenly approaches it, and the immediate raising of your arm to ward off an unexpected threat when there is not time to otherwise prepare for it, are both instincts we employ day after day. Sensing that a stranger approaching us is to be avoided, whereas another may be safely spoken to, is another example of God-given instincts.
Wild animals have been given an instinct to avoid poisonous things, such as certain mushrooms, berries, roots, etc. A deer, for instance, will eat leaves from bushes all around an oleander plant, but instinct tells it to leave that one entirely alone. Human beings do not need this instinct since we can be taught what is poisonous, because God has given us an intellect for this. His careful provisions for both man and beast remind us that “He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom.” Jeremiah 10-12.
(to be continued)
ML-03/13/1988