Creative Strategies for Life

1 Corinthians 6:20
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Some creatures seem more wise and powerful in dealing with the problems of living than seems reasonable.

For example, when threatened with parasites, some creatures change their method of reproduction to put the parasites at a disadvantage. Several types of fungus infect some grasses, producing poisons. However, these poisons don’t harm the infected grass. Instead, they protect the grass from insects and other enemies. This makes it less likely that the fungus will lose its happy home.

When fungal parasites take over certain wild grasses, the fungus destroys the flowers of the plant so that it can only reproduce by sending out shoots from its roots. Can you figure out the fungus’s clever strategy? New shoots are genetically identical to the parent, and just as susceptible to the fungus. New plants from seeds, however, might express traits that were present, though unexpressed, in the parent, like resistance to the fungus. So it’s in the fungus’s best interest to restrict the grass to identical offspring.

A New Zealand freshwater snail can reproduce with or without fertilized eggs. However, in those lakes where the snail is threatened by a parasitic worm, the snail uses only fertilized eggs, increasing the likelihood that some of the offspring will be able to resist the parasite.

There is a lot more thought and power to be seen in these examples than worms, snails and grasses could generate. The Creator is even glorified in the relationships between parasite and host!

Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, there is nothing in the creation that does not glorify You! I thank You for that and pray that I might do a better job of glorifying You before others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Cowen, Ron. 1990. “Parasite power.” Science News, v. 138, Sept. 28. p. 200.