The Wonders of God’s Creation
In the preceding issue we looked at the design and habits of jellyfish found in oceans all over the world. Following is a description of a few of them:
The giant of them all is the Cyanea Arctica, measuring eight feet across its body and armed with tentacles 200 feet long. These live in cold northern waters and are seldom seen by men.
Perhaps the most talked of and feared is the Portuguese man-of-war, with 20 or more tentacles, also reaching down some 200 feet. It has a bright blue body and a gas-filled sail reaching above the surface for a means of travel with the wind. Its tentacles have enough poison to kill two dozen fish at a time and can prove fatal to a swimmer.
But there is another more to be feared than the man-of-war. That is the sea wasp found off the north coast of Australia. It has a transparent box-shaped and jet-propelled body and tentacles that also go deep into the ocean. It is perhaps the most deadly of all with an abundance of poison. This jellyfish kills more people each year than do sharks.
Another sky-blue variety is called “by-the-wind-sailor.” Like a miniature man-of-war, it drifts with the wind and is sometimes stranded in great numbers on seashores. Its body is only two or three inches wide with short tentacles, which confine its catch to tiny fish or other sea life.
We only have space to mention one more, out of the vast number of these creatures. This one, the physalia, lives in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. It is a beautiful blue, or sometimes pink, with tentacles from 40 to 100 feet long and, like some of the others, can kill a man. Strangely though a small fish, named nemeus, makes its home among the physalia’s deadly tentacles and even nibbles on them from time to time with no harm from the poison.
Little jellyfish are often carried by adults like a pile of saucers and eventually, one by one, break away to live their own lives.
Most jellyfish are quite pretty, and a person not knowing the danger might be tempted to pick one out of the water, but would soon regret doing so. This reminds us of Satan, the great deceiver, who likes to put hurtful temptations into our lives. How important to notice David’s prayer: “By the word of Thy lips I have... [been kept from] the paths of the destroyer. Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.” Psa. 17:4,54Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. 5Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not. (Psalm 17:4‑5). As our opening verse states, happiness is found only when we rely on the Lord God to preserve us from Satan’s evil ways.
ML-08/28/1988