The first of our two creatures is the centipede. This name means one hundred legs, but it is just a general term since not all of the fifteen hundred centipede varieties have the same number of legs. The most common have only thirty (fifteen pairs), but large tropical centipedes may have more than three hundred! Centipedes suggest danger, since their first pairs of legs have poisonous claws used to kill their prey. In the tropics, there are large centipedes whose bites can be very dangerous; however, the common variety in North America cannot pierce human skin, and their victims 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 molting new segments and legs are added. Active at night, their days are spent hiding underground, under stones or in a piece of rotten wood.
We might wonder why the Creator put these strange creatures 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 “a thousand legs,” but two hundred 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 thirty or forty segments. There are other differences too. Millipedes, without poisonous claws, are entirely harmless. And rather than worms and insects, their food is mostly decaying plants or moist vegetation, which is why so many appear in damp flower beds.
They are often a nuisance because they damage 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 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 us to find our pleasures in the sinful things of this world, but He tells us to “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)). This is the way of true happiness, which you will see if you follow it.
ML-02/28/2010