The Amazing Woodpecker

Deuteronomy 4:28
“And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.”

The woodpecker’s tongue can stretch from three to five times its normal length in order to fish bugs out of trees. You would think that his tongue would have to be rooted in his tail to do that neat trick! This beautiful creation in which we live is not only filled with testimonies to the wisdom of God. It is also filled with special designs that deny the possibility that life in all its complexity developed entirely by chance.

Consider the woodpecker. Incredibly, the woodpecker’s tongue is rooted in his right nostril. Exiting the back of the nostril, his tongue splits into two parts, wrapping around his head between his skull and the skin, passing on either side of the neck bones, and then coming up through his lower jaw or beak. This gives the woodpecker a long enough tongue to stretch it out far enough to do an effective job of pest control on bug infested trees!

Now how could this happen by blind evolutionary chance? Even evolutionists admit that it’s silly to suggest that the woodpecker’s tongue gradually got longer over thousands of year and began to grow under his skin. As one evolutionary scientist said about the woodpecker’s tongue, “There are certain anatomical features which just cannot be explained by gradual mutations over millions of years. Just between you and me, I have to get God into the act too sometimes.”

Why wait to call on God as a last resort? Let’s begin with our wonderful Creator!

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, through the instruction of Your Word and the guidance of Your Spirit, help me to be different from those around me who think that the creation itself made them. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Notes:
Sunderland, Luther D. 1975. “Miraculous design features in woodpeckers.” Bible Science Newsletter, v. 13, n. 10, Oct. p. 4. Photo: Green woodpecker. Courtesy of British Wildlife and Environment Forums.