"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth" (Eccl. 12:1).
We have had an interesting look at monarch butterflies and their remarkable migrations. Today we will look briefly at a few other butterfly varieties.
The sharp colors and designs of a butterfly are formed by thousands of tiny scales covering its wings like shingles on a roof. These scales not only add beauty but strengthen the wings and absorb warmth for the butterfly, which cannot fly until its body is warmed to about 80 degrees.
The male monarch has bright orange on its wings, spreading out from its coal-black body. Each wing has a matching black border, speckled with white at the outer edges. The female is much lighter in color.
Another pretty one is the great spangled fritillary. It has a soft-orange body with the same soft orange on its wings, which also have dark-brown markings in various shapes. At the outer edges of the wings a narrow strip looks like a hand-sewn hem.
The American copper has copper and silvery-gray wings, with large and small black patches. Then there is the Florida blue, an outstanding beauty of deep purplish blue, without the extra trimmings so many others have. The American painted lady, on the other hand, is such a contrast with a heavily patterned wingspread of brown overlaid with large circles of bluish-brown. Each circle is enclosed by a light inside ring and a dark outer one. The edges of its wings are bordered with ribbons of blue, white, pink and dark brown. The upper section of each wing looks like an artist with a fine paint brush has traced narrow and broad lines in scattered directions.
A more unusual one is named the 88 butterfly, because of two pairs of large marks on its light-brown wings which look like big number 8s. Around these are deep brown circles, and across the center of the back is a brilliant display of bright red.
As we admire the "beauties of nature" around us, let us remember we are actually seeing the Creator 's handiwork. Another Bible verse says: "He is before all things, and by Him all things consist" (Col. 1:17).
It is God our Creator's voice of love and authority that we want to believe, not man's ideas of evolution. Let each of us remember Him both in our youth and into old age as well, not only as the Creator of all, but, more importantly, as the One who sent His Son Jesus to die for the sins of all who will believe on Him.