“Be Still”
Psalm 46:10
Part 1

How could she foresee the terror that would invade her home a few weeks from now? Her meadow would soon become the place of a monumental struggle between men. She, however, would be busy demonstrating the holiness of the Lord God!

She was a honeybee, beautifully made and marvelously designed by her Creator. Her sisters and she had been born earlier that spring, and now were busy building a hive, raising young, and storing food. She had also become an unlikely ambassador for Christ. Would the approaching foreigners take time to realize the engraving of their Savior's holy character on her being? Would they pause long enough to consider how they too could reflect the holiness of their Heavenly Father, and thus avert a battle?

In what ways does an insect bring glory to the holy God? Honeybees are so typical of insects that they can be considered an insect archetype (ARE - keh - type). This means that bees show all the characteristics Christ commonly built into insects. For example, insects like the honeybee are composed of three body parts: an abdomen, a thorax (chest), and a head. In contrast, spiders were created with two body parts; thus, spiders are not considered insects.

Another characteristic common to all insects is the number of legs they have attached to their thoraxes. The great Designer gave people two legs. Spiders, on the other hand, have eight, as do mites and ticks. Lobsters have ten legs, and millipedes, a hundred or more! Insects, however, have six and always six.

The Heavenly Father also fastened wings to the thoraxes of many insects. In fact, insects, birds, and bats are the only animals that truly fly. Some insects, such as the honeybee, have two pairs of wings, a total of four. Flies, gnats, and mosquitoes have one pair of wings and are in a group of insects called Diptera, which means "two wings."

Even if we disregard size, an insect can easily be distinguished from you and me because its skeleton is found on the outside of its body, while ours is on the inside. Our skeleton is composed of bones covered by muscles and skin, whereas the skeleton of a bee is made of chitin (KYE - tin), a hard substance similar to our fingernails. Since the skeleton of an insect lies on the outside of its body, entomologists (people who study insects) refer to it as the exoskeleton. ("Exo" is a Greek word meaning "outside.")

Another thing that distinguishes insects from us is their eyes. A closeup view of a honeybee's face can send shivers down our spines! A typical insect has two compound eyes and three simple eyes called ocelli (oh - SELL - eye). The compound eyes of a honeybee are a highly complex arrangement of thousands of individual lenses.

It is thought that insects perceive the world around them as a mosaic of different images. Recent research suggests that Christ coordinates the numerous lenses of the compound eye to form a single picture in the insect's brain, not unlike the way we see. An insect, however probably sees an object with less detail than we do.

This is what we would see if we looked at a picture of an insect.

This is what a dragonfly would see if it looked at the same insect.

It is also suspected that insects detect a wide range of colors, including ultraviolet light, which people cannot see. This broadened view of the world helps honeybees locate flowers. Certain flowers have been painted with wonderful geometric designs only visible in ultraviolet light; thus, a honeybee sees certain patterns in a flower that we cannot see!

This is how we would see a flower.

This is how a honeybee would see the same flower!

The Creator's construction of the insect body involves many organs similar to our own. In addition to eyes, insects have a brain, a heart, a digestive tract, and kidneys of a sort.1 They do not have lungs, however. Instead, the insect has tubes that traverse its abdomen, called tracheae, (pronounced TRAY - key - ee) which allow air to pass in and out of its body. The tracheae of a honeybee are similar to the intake manifolds and exhaust pipes on a car.

The fact that insects frighten us should give us reason to consider the holiness of their Maker, but why are we so wary of them? Is it their small size, their ability to sting or bite, or is it their alien appearance which we find terrifying? Take, for example, an insect's mouth. It has no teeth as we do. Rather, it has been given multiple interlocking parts for cutting, chewing, piercing, or sucking its food. Most of us are familiar with the different dining customs of other countries. Chopsticks may seem strange to those living in Kenya, but no eating habits are as foreign as those of an insect!

A closeup of a grasshopper munching a leaf or a butterfly can be both a fascinating and frightening experience. Their methods of cutting up and chewing their food may seem grotesque to us. It is fortunate, in this sense, that the Lord Jesus Christ made insects quite small!

An insect, such as the common housefly, is able to taste things with its mouth. Many insects, like the fly, can also taste food using their feet! Special hairs on the ends of their legs allow honeybees to test the chemical composition of the nectar they gather from flowers.

The honeybee has no ears or nose, which might seem a great disadvantage. The Heavenly Father, however, has given all insects two antennae--marvelous instruments of exploration and discovery.

Each insect, using its antennae, can accurately sense its surroundings. With them, it can feel in the dark, and it can use them to detect odors and certain sounds! Christ also placed sensitive hairs on an insect's legs to help it detect vibrations in the air.

This brief examination of insect architecture can give us a special appreciation for the great Architect if we are willing to ponder these wonderful little creatures. Since all creation tells of God's inventive genius (Psalm 148), what can we learn about Him by examining a honeybee, and how does she speak of Christ's holiness? Will the coming invaders of the honeybee's meadow pay any attention to the message she has for them?

As we have seen in the previous issues of CREATOR,2 God's holiness can be understood in two ways. The first is purity--God is holy, thus He is unstained by sin and perfectly pure. The second is His distinct character, which is foreign or alien to us. Though no man has ever seen God's face, we're given an idea of how different He is from us in the book of Revelation:

Then I saw a Lamb....He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 3

(Many people are very frightened by insects, but if they could peer into God's holy face they might be infinitely more terrified by the gaze of His seven eyes. God is Spirit, however, and He has no physical body--He is not some gigantic bug! In the Bible the number seven symbolizes the fullness or perfection of the Lord. So this reference to seven horns and seven eyes is not meant to picture the Lord as a deformed beast, but rather the holy and perfect God He is!)

Now, the honeybee has five eyes, which is three more than we have. Like their Creator, insects are quite foreign in appearance when compared to us. In this way, they radiate God's holy character!

The Heavenly Father clearly proclaims in Psalm 46 that He will be exalted among the nations and in the earth. It is no accident that the honeybees reside in this particular meadow; they were placed there to exalt the Lord God. But will the converging armies take notice? Will they obey the command of our Savior, "Seek and you will find" (Matthew 7:7)? Will the soldiers stop and notice God's holy character reflected in the smallest of His creatures and consider how they too can be holy like Him? Will the battle be thwarted? We will have to wait and see!

We conclude our discussion of the holy character of God, as seen in nature, in "Be Still, part 2."

Notes:
1 - The "kidneys" of an insect are referred to as the Malpighian tubules.
2 - November/December 1995 & January/February 1996
3 - Revelation 5:6

HOME AT LAST
(A true story)

I felt a bit strange about driving nine miles to take a little bug back home. Last fall I invaded his watery world to capture him, as well as his brothers and sisters, in order to populate an artificial pond at the HIS CREATION office. Now, seven months later, he was the lone survivor of twelve water striders (Gerris remigis). I hesitated as I uncovered the top of the aquarium and asked myself, "Is it worth driving all the way over to the creek for one little insect?" Without knowing fully why, my heart said "Yes," and so I went.

As I arrived at the park, I had second thoughts about releasing my six-legged friend because the weather was less than ideal. Doubts about his survival in captivity, however, propelled me to proceed with my plan to free him.

The sky was gray and the air was cool. Icy drizzle dampened my skin and the wind cut through my sweater. I walked southeast toward the creek--one- quarter of a mile or so down a path in the woods. Trees were starting to show their green foliage and the smell of emerging plants was everywhere in the spring air.

Soon the bridge came into view. It was simple-fashioned from two seasoned logs laid side-by-side over the stream. I made my way to the creek and paused to examine its surroundings. It looked very similar to the fall scene in my mind, except greener, of course. Carefully opening the plastic container used to transport my companion of the past two seasons, I checked to evaluate his condition. No worse for wear, it appeared!

water strider

I dipped the bucket into the lively creek and allowed the container to fill gently with water. At first, my insect friend seemed hesitant to leave his make-shift home. I coaxed him a little, and moments later he was in the quieter waters near the edge of the stream. It took him no time to make his way into a protected patch of aquatic grass, and soon he disappeared from sight into his own little paradise.

"Is this how God sees me?" I thought. Some might say that I unnecessarily expended valuable time and energy on a bug, but at that precious moment of freedom I more fully realized the Lord Jesus' love for me. He sacrificed so much to free me from sin and bring me home to Him. The humbleness of His life far exceeds the brief humility I showed in caring for one of God's little creatures.

Was it worth the bother to restore a single insect? Yes, it was! It brought to mind what my wife, Colleen, has often said to encourage me when I feel down: "Rick, do you know that if you were the only person who ever lived on earth, Jesus would have still come and died on the cross to save you?!"

Carrying the empty bucket back to the car, my hands stung from the biting wind. "How much more did Christ's hands sting from the nails?" I thought. "I'm just a man; He is God!" I'm glad I took the time to show kindness to a creature who will never remember my face. This simple act has left me with an impression of the infinitely greater love that God has for us all!

Do you want to experience the warmth of God's gentle hands and the security of His eternal home in Paradise? It is necessary for you to recognize that you have lived your life isolated from Him, that you are a sinner. Christ Jesus, God's Son, died on a cross so that your sins might be forgiven. He rose back to life and blazed a narrow path through Satan's evil world to bring us to eternal life. You, too, can have life everlasting. Christ is the only way to obtain it, however, so place your full trust in Him! Please seriously consider committing yourself to Christ right now by praying the following simple prayer:

Dear God, I recognize that I have lived my life independently of You and You consider this sin. Please forgive me through your Son, Jesus Christ--through His death on the cross. Jesus, please come into my heart right now and become my King and my God. I accept your gift of eternal life. Show me how to live the way You want me to live. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.

Contact us at HIS CREATION if you made this commitment. We want to help!