The Wonders of God’s Creation
Most of us are pleased to find any kind of flower growing in the wild, enjoy its fragrance and perhaps take a picture of it. Many of them seem so delicate that we are careful not to handle them roughly.
But among these plants and flowers are some with strange ways. In an earlier issue we considered one of them, the three-foot-tall pitcher plant, that is sold in garden stores to people who like them in a living room or sunporch. The top of this plant is open (like a pitcher) and syrup at the bottom attracts many insects. The insects, crawling down to get a stomach full, find themselves trapped and unable to escape. Soon they die there and become food absorbed into the plant.
Another is the sundew, which has sticky flowers in which crawling or flying insects are trapped and gradually “devoured” by the plant — not with a set of sharp teeth, but by being absorbed into the plant’s system.
Bladderwort plants, growing in ponds, use a different way of trapping. When a water bug, or even a small minnow, bumps into one, that part of the plant flies open and the victim is sucked inside where it cannot escape. It then becomes part of the food supply of its captor.
Then there is the huntsman’s cap. Its prey, attracted by its sweet smell, lights on its top and to its surprise finds it so slippery that it slides down to the bottom where rain water has collected. It soon drowns and decomposes to form food helpful to the plant.
Other plants don’t eat insects; God has designed them to keep insects away by their producing chemicals that either chase the insects off or may even kill them. Among these plants are marigolds, some varieties of mushrooms and goldenrod that discourage insect visitors by burning holes in their bodies with their chemicals. Even cucumber plants give off odors that send cockroaches scurrying away.
These are exceptions to the general nature of plants. Most plants need insects, such as bees, butterflies and moths, to help them develop their flowers, fruit or berries. But as we consider their ways that are strange to us, we are reminded in our opening Bible verse that they are all among the wonders of God’s creation, and we know each one serves a real purpose in His order of things.
He has a purpose for your life, too. He invites you to come to Him through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who gave His life on Calvary to be a Saviour to all who will trust in Him. One happy purpose for those who trust in the Lord Jesus is to serve and honor Him. Are you trusting in Jesus?
ML-06/18/1989