Nature's Inspiration Helps Us Know that There Is A God
Humans And Majestic Sequoias
The giant redwood tree, also known as Sierra redwood or Sierran redwood, is the species Sequoiadendron giganteum. It grows naturally in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, at elevations between 3,000 and 8,500 feet.
It is the only living species in the genus Sequoiadendron.
It can grow to an average height of 164-279 feet, and a trunk diameter from 20-26 feet. Its total estimated weight runs about 6,167 tons.
Sequoia lumber is more brittle than the redwood, leading to a lower quality of wood used for man, thus saving giant sequoias from destruction.
Bringing Nature Back
Those that appreciate nature often seek to restore it.
Lawyer-turned-Environmentalist Afroz Shah Does the Largest Beach Cleanup in the World
Millions of people saw the polluted river in Versova, India but when lawyer Afroz Shah saw it, he decided to clean it, and spend over a year doing so. For his efforts, he became the UN Champion of Earth in 2016.
Then he shifted to clean the Mithi River, which runs 11 miles long and goes through the city. When interviewed by the Indian Express, he stated the biggest challenge in cleaning this river was to “train a large number of people living along its banks to keep it clean”.
The Largest Animal on Earth
The blue whale or Balaenoptera musculus can grow up to 100 feet long - as long as the longest jumbo jet - and weigh up to 200 tons - that equals the weight of thirty elephants! Their tongue alone weighs two tons, as much as an elephant, and their heart is as large as a small car.
The mouth of a blue whale has up to 800 plates of short, wide, black baleen, or “whalebone,” that is composed of thick, coarse bristles they use to catch food. During a feeding dive, it can engage in twists and turns, including 360° rolls, to find its prey. With one opened-mouth lunge, a blue whale can negotiate itself to sweep up a huge school of krill - and a one adult blue whale can consume eight tons of krill a day.
According to Britanica,
In the 1930–31 season alone the worldwide kill of blue whales exceeded 29,000. The species has been protected from commercial whaling since the mid-1960s. Populations of blue whales appear to be recovering and are estimated worldwide at between 10,000 and 25,000 animals. However, the International Union for Conservation of Nature still lists the blue whale as an endangered species.
In general, females are larger than males, with the largest blue whales being found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica.
Baby Hummingbird and A Raspberry
There are 320 species the hummingbird, who are of the family Trochilidae, sometimes placed in the order Apodiformes and other times separated into their own order, Trochiliformes. The greatest variety and number of hummingbird species occur in South America, with approximately twelve species found in the United States and Canada.
Britannica says:
The northernmost hummingbird is the rufous (Selasphorus rufus), which breeds from southeastern Alaska to northern California. The broad-tailed hummingbird (S. platycercus) breeds in the western United States and Central America and the Allen’s hummingbird breeds in the coastal regions of California.
Hummingbirds are known for their elaborately specialized feathers that usually occur only in the males.
The smallest species is the bee hummingbird Mellisuga, sometimes called Calypte helenae, which is found in Cuba and the Isle of Pines. It measures about 2 inches; the bill and tail account for half. Weighing about 0.004 pound, this species is the smallest living bird, ranking with the pygmy shrew as the smallest of all warm-blooded vertebrates.
A hummingbird requires a feeding every 10-15 minutes. To do this, it must visit over 1,000 to 2,000 flowers a day. Hummingbirds travel far to get this much nectar, with the ruby-throated hummingbird flying 500 miles a day. Other hummingbirds fly 1200 miles a day. On the average, a hummingbird flies about 720 miles a day and is able to go 1200 nonstop miles. They also provide insect control, eating ants, beetles, small insects, and wasps.
Mussels Clean Shop
Two tanks were filled with Virginia stream water for 24 hours. The second image shows the right one is cleaner than the left tank. This is due to its containing mussels.
Mussels are filter feeders. By drawing in large seawater volumes, they trap phytoplankton, their food source.
One mussel can filter up to 92 gallons of seawater daily – equivalent to three full bathtubs. One freshwater mussel can filter 5-10 gallons of water a day. Their water filtration removes sediments and other substances that make the water murky.
Mussels are found in many worldwide oceans, including the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. They can live for 30 years, with some species living up to 50 years.
Due to their taste and nutritional benefit, mussels are very popular as a food. They are low in saturated fat and sodium, and are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, minerals like iron, manganese, phosphorus and potassium, as well as vitamins B and C.
In the wild, mussels fix themselves to rocks or other mussels on the ocean floor, holding on with incredibly strong, hair-like “beards” or byssal threads, that help them stay in place during storms or strong tides. Scientists are studying to decode their byssal thread secrets for a mussel-based adhesive to use in eye surgeries. Their shell chitlin is used in moisturizers, hair-care products, and more.
Quetzalcoatlus Northropi Model
Quetzalcoatlus Northropi is known to be the largest known flying animal ever to exist. It lived 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous time. This gigantic pterosaur had wings spanning a length of 33 to 40 feet.
The Quetzalcoatlus Northropi fossil was first discovered in Texas at Big Bend National Park, with over 90 species of dinosaur fossils span an uninterrupted record from the Age of Reptiles to the Age of Mammals.
The best exhibit is at the Fossil Discovery Exhibit, located 8 miles north of the Panther Junction Visitor Center.
WHAT I REALLY THINK
God created a majestic world for us, and we can look at nature and know that there is a God.
Psalm 19:1 ESV
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
If you don’t know that there is a God, I hope that you look around nature and see that all of this did not happen by chance.
You can also look at the human body and its innate ability to heal and repair, and know that it is majestically made.
If you sit and think about it, and it touches your soul, then you can also know that God created you in His likeness. He gave you a free will and the ability to choose your future. And your present.
He loves you and has been in your presence since before you were born. And He sent His only Son to be born of a virgin girl, who had an angel appear and call her blessed.
Christ then walked the earth, teaching his disciples, and died on the cross to shed His blood for all man, so that our sins could be forgiven and we could gain rightstanding with God. This was lost when Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden apple.
Christ gave us a solid foundation. If we trust in what He said while on earth, He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
You can accept Christ into your heart right now, just by saying a simple prayer and believing that God will restore you to Himself.
Father God, I accept all that Jesus did for me by dying on the cross. I ask for the forgiveness of my sins, and to be made right with You for all of eternity.
I ask Christ to come into my heart and life now. Amen.
Now go tell someone. Be baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, where you die to yourself and become alive to Jesus Christ.