The first of our two subjects is the centipede. This name means 100 legs, but is just a general term since not all of the 1500 centipede varieties have the same number of legs. The most common have only 30, but big tropical ones may have more than 300. The centipede suggests danger, for they are known to be poisonous. However, the common ones in America cannot pierce human skin, and their targets are only earthworms and small insects.
These long, thin, blind creatures are composed of many segments, each segment having one right and one left leg attached. Most centipedes are born with very few segments, but at each moulting, new segments and legs are added. It might be thought so many legs would get mixed up, but you’d be surprised how fast they can travel, all legs working in unison. Active at night, their days are spent underground, under stones or in a piece of rotten wood.
We might wonder why the Creator put these strange things on the earth, but they are all part of His divinely planned creation, and He gives them the ability to make out very well in their unusual lives.
Then there are the millipedes. This name means 1000 legs, but 200 would be more accurate. Their brown, cylindrical bodies are much like the centipedes’ except that each segment has four legs, and most varieties have only 30 or 40 segments. There are other differences, too. The millipede, without poisonous fangs, is entirely harmless. Rather than worms and other insects, this creature’s food is mostly decaying plants or moist vegetation, which is why so many appear in flower beds that are kept damp.
They are often a nuisance by damaging plants, but there is no need to be afraid of them. In fact, they themselves are afraid when exposed and immediately coil up in a tight little circle, their heads in the center and their legs all pulled under their bodies.
While both these creatures are part of God’s creation and under His care, we are reminded that in Old Testament days, under the law, God told His people not to eat them (see the opening verse above.) Instead, He named clean animals and birds that stand up or fly above the earth as their proper food.
We are not now under those laws, but we see an important lesson in them. God does not want any of us to find our pleasures in this wicked world (other than enjoying things of His creation), but He tells us: “Seek those things which are above.... not... things on the earth.” Colossians 3:1,21If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. (Colossians 3:1‑2). That is the way of true happiness. You will see if you follow it.
ML-06/15/1986