As most of you know..we are expecting our beautiful baby girl in April. I am really looking forward to being a mommy! A few posts ago, I shared what Karina's nursery room theme was...a butterfly garden and why I chose this theme. I totally love butterflies and realize that not only do I love them but God had very special reasons for creating them! As I surfed the net I came across this beautiful page that only made me appreciate God's creation even more and the miracle of the butterfly. I think it's incredible:D I wanted to share it with you so you too can better appreciate all the beauty we have around and realize that God wants to show us His great desire for us to be transformed and pure! Enjoy!
BUTTERFLIES
God's Flying Flowers
Jesus created the earth and all that is in it. His universe is remarkable in its complexity and beauty of design. Much of it is strange and we could ask, "Why did He do it this way?"
The butterflies are one of His especially beautiful creations. The more we study them the more we see the wisdom, power, and abilities of Jesus the Creator and Designer.
LIFECYCLE:
When Jesus created the world he created all life as mature. He did not create seeds and then plant them. He created mature plants who produced seeds to reproduce other plants like itself. He did the same with all of life on the earth including animals and insects. Jesus created mature butterflies who mated and laid eggs. These then hatched out into little butterflies. (Of course we know better for the eggs hatched into little caterpillars, but if the so called science of the world is true the eggs would have to hatch butterflies.) That butterfly eggs would hatch into caterpillars is strange, amazing, astonishing, miraculous, surprising and wonderful. For if you plant a seed the plant that comes up is like the plant the seed came from. Fish eggs hatch into little fish. When you were conceived in your mother’s womb you started out as an egg that developed into the human being you are, not into a caterpillar. Yet it is strange but true that it pleased the Creator to make butterfly eggs hatch into caterpillars.
The caterpillars live off the leaves of plants. As they grow they shed their skin several times growing up to 30,000 times in size. Finally they take a nap for a week or two and wake up as butterflies. During the nap time most of the organs and other tissues of the caterpillar break down, turning into a semiliquid. From this material are formed the wings, legs, and other parts of the adult. At last the adult is ready to wake up and become a butterfly or moth. This is a most unusual life cycle, yet it was the Creator’s pleasure to cause caterpillars to turn into butterflies through this remarkable process.
CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LIFE OF THE CATERPILLAR AND BUTTERFLY:
Caterpillars eat plants while most butterflies drink the nectar of flowers. Those that live for several months also eat pollen and other foods. This requires a change in how they eat for the caterpillar has a mouth to bit off pieces of leaves and push it into his body, while butterflies have a long slender sucking tube. When the tube is not in use it is coiled up like a delicate watch spring. By uncoiling the tube butterflies probe deep into the flowers and suck up the nectar. Also, this change in food requires a change in digestion.
Caterpillars crawl to move around. Their body consists of a head followed by 12 or 13 segments. Like all insects, it also has three pairs of permanent or "true" legs--one pair on each of the first three segments directly behind the head. These true legs are usually hard, jointed, and tipped with tiny claws. To support the rest of its long body, the caterpillar also has from two to five pairs of soft, thick prolegs that disappear when it changes into a moth or butterfly. Some caterpillars are covered with hairs and others have a bare skin.
Butterflies have three legs and three body sections and they fly. Their wings and certain portions of their bodies are covered with a fine dust. Under a microscope the dust is seen to be made up of millions of finely ridged scales that are arranged in overlapping rows. Each scale has a tiny "stem" that fits into a cuplike socket. The beautiful colors and markings of the insect are due to the scales, which come in a remarkable variety of colors. Being able to fly requires a change in weight for caterpillars are too heavy to fly.
Caterpillars have six simple eyes and have poor eye sight, while butterflies have compound eyes with good eye sight.
The difference between caterpillars and butterflies is so great it is difficult to believe they are the same insect. The complex designs and life styles is proof there is a Designer who cheated them to be what He wanted them to be. It is impossible this could have happened by accident.
Butterflies do not have a common ancestor. Each type was created separately and each reproduced itself, so through the ages they have changed only slightly if at all. Butterflies and moths have the same life style, yet there is a great variation between the various butterflies and moths. In size they range from one fifth of an inch to ten inches across. They are of all colors and live in all types of climates and on all the continents except Antarctica. In some the male and female look completely different. In some the colors and patterns on top of the wing is completely different from that on the bottom of the wing. Many live on only one type of food and if they cannot find it they starve. And there is great variation in how, when and where they take their nap to turn from a caterpillar into a butterfly or moth.
METAMORPHOSIS
Metamorphosis is the scientific name for the change of an ungainly, crawling caterpillar into a delicate, flying butterfly. The word is from a Greek word meaning "transformed." Metamorphosis occurs not only in butterflies but also in thousands of insect and amphibian species.
Christians also go through a metamorphosis, a transformation. For a description of this process go to Metamorphosis. The Power of Jesus to Change Us Into the Likeness of His Image.
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God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind," and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:24,25 WEB
* I plan on somehow putting this up in Karina's nursery because I want her to be reminded of God's love and power to transform our lives each and every day!
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