There are about forty varieties of dolphins (sometimes incorrectly called porpoises) throughout the world's warm ocean waters. These include some that are three feet long and others that are up to fifteen feet long and weigh one thousand pounds or more. They are all excellent swimmers, sometimes covering more than seventy miles a day and reaching speeds above thirty miles an hour.
Dolphins travel in large schools, enjoying each other's company and often leaping out of the water, individually or several together, apparently having a good time doing this and other playful things. They communicate with one another, sometimes when more than a mile apart, by whistles, squeaks and barks. Each dolphin has a distinctive tone, just as your voice is different from that of your brother or sister. They can communicate this way with each other even when it is too dark to see one another.
The Creator has streamlined their bodies, enabling unusually fast movements, and they are particularly designed for catching fish—their entire food supply. Their short snouts look like beaks, and their streamlined bodies taper off to large, flat tails, divided in the middle. These tails are used both as a rudder and as a contributor to their unusual speed.
Dolphins are so friendly with each other and with people that it almost seems as if the “smile” on the face of a newly born dolphin is only a starter, and as they grow bigger the smile does the same. An interesting fact: Babies are born underwater, and the mother immediately pushes the little one to the surface for its first breath of air, sometimes with a little help from another dolphin. If she were too slow in doing this, the little one would inhale water into its lungs and drown. Dolphins are not really fish; they are mammals, like seals and whales that also come to the surface regularly for that life-giving breath of air.
There are apparently no reports of these intelligent creatures ever purposely harming a swimmer. In the next article we will consider in more detail their relationship with humans, which you will find extremely interesting.
Perhaps the Creator has given us these delightful creatures as an illustration of a part of His creation that lives in peace and happiness, because they do not associate with cruel and evil things. Let's apply this to the opening Bible verse, for they are an example to us in their happy, peaceful lives.
The Saviour's words to those who trust in Him are these: “My peace I give unto you: not as the world [gives]” (John 14:2727Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)). If you trust Him and are obedient to His Word, you will have that promised peace.
(to be continued)
ML-01/06/2008