“Thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.” Psalm 36:6
We are all familiar with the vicious-looking jaws and teeth of the crocodile, which are able to rip apart the flesh of almost any animal or even a person. But while these teeth are very strong and sharp, they sometimes become infested with leeches and other parasites. However, God in His wonderful creation has provided an unusual way to remove these parasites from the crocodile’s teeth.
At times a crocodile will crawl onto a bank of the Nile River and lie with its jaws wide open, sometimes going to sleep in that position. Soon a little African bird, the spurwing plover (sometimes called the crocodile bird), comes along and sees the open mouth as an invitation to dinner. It will fly down and enter right into those terrible-looking jaws! It hops around the inside of the crocodile’s mouth, pecking out and eating all the parasites.
What an amazing thing this is! The crocodile usually snaps its jaws closed on anything that touches them—except when it is the crocodile bird! Somehow it knows that this bird is its friend, and it will not harm the bird—truly amazing!
This bird helps the crocodile in other ways besides cleaning its teeth; it feeds on insects living on the crocodile’s body. And flies are always bothering these big creatures too. The flies attack the crocodile’s eyes and sometimes cause sores to develop. This little bird goes after those flies too.
It is doubtful that either the bird or the crocodile behave this way because of any real friendship, but rather because there are benefits for both of them. Yet we cannot help but wonder at this unusual partnership. It is another example of how the Creator God watches over all creation.
How does this little bird know it will not be crushed in the jaws of the big reptile? What keeps the crocodile from snapping its jaws shut when the bird is inside? The answer is that this partnership was arranged by God, whose interest is not only in creating, but also in taking care of all His creatures.
While the crocodile does not harm the little plover, it will quickly attack anything else. The crocodile’s habits remind us of an enemy whose evil ways can trap us. The Bible warns us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). This enemy wants to keep our thoughts away from God, knowing that this will lead to unhappiness and judgment. Our protection, through faith, is in the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, who “is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Hebrews 7:25). Do you have the Savior’s protection?