Not Always What They Seem To Be

Matthew 10:29
“Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.”

The creation is filled with a remarkable number of creatures that are able to fool their enemies into thinking they are something else. They provide us with examples of God’s attention to details in the creation.

The toad grasshopper of South Africa may be found among different kinds of rocks. Grasshoppers that live among quartzite pebbles have the same lighter colors and markings as the pebbles, making them nearly invisible. Across the valley, other toad grasshoppers – living among the volcanic rocks – are darkly colored like the volcanic rocks.

The Kenyan bush cricket lives almost invisibly among the moss that commonly covers trees because it looks just like the moss. The Trinidadian katydid looks as if it might be a patch of blotchy fungus that grows on the same leaves it lives on. The Malaysian katydid takes a different approach. It looks just like one of the veined leaves upon which it lives. The Malaysian tussock moth has transparent patches on its wings so that with its coloration it looks like a decayed section of the leaf upon which it lives. The larva of the silver king shoemaker butterfly eats leaves in the protection of nights’ darkness and by day hangs from the leaf it has been eating, looking like part of the tattered leaf.

No creature was too small or unimportant when our Creator planned the details of His work. We should see from these examples that He cares for each of us. His message of how He cares for you is in the Bible.

Prayer: Dear Father in heaven, I confess that I have often placed value on things in the same way that the unbelieving world does. Teach me in Your Word how and what You value. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Author: Paul A. Bartz

Ref: “The masters of mimicry.” Discover, June 1985. p. 56. Photo: Malaysian katydid by Notafl CCA by SA 3.0 Unported.