I don't know if you've ever seen one, but I dearly love the catalpa tree.
It's a gorgeous tree, and it never fails to remind me of our Creator God . . .
Why?
The catalpa tree is one that has a unique relationship with a caterpillar! The beautiful, heart-shaped leaves are prized munchies for the catalpa worm. The worm's coloring is very much like the tree leaves themselves, so that the caterpillars are hidden much of the time from the predatory birds that would love to snack on them.
The caterpillars are fierce eaters -- they can defoliate a tree in "two shakes of a lamb's tail" as my grandma used to say, and if you have seen a lamb nursing from his mama, you know that tail can shake pretty rapidly! Yep, in no time flat, all the leaves are gone, and the caterpillars have provided droppings that enrich the soil around the tree, so that it grows magnificently. It can even put out more leaves and be stripped bare by a second generation of caterpillars -- in one summer!
The worms themselves are prized by fishermen, but that is a whole 'nother story . . . the relationship between the caterpillars and the trees just proves to me that the people who don't believe in a Creator God are just not very observant!
I mean, how do those critters find the catalpa tree? After all, ours is the only one for miles! It was sent to us from out of state, and planted in our pasture, so it's not like there's a whole grove of 'em! But our Father planned for the symbiosis (I just love that word) of tree and caterpillar, just as He planned everything else in our beautiful world!
In my mind's eye, I can see Him forming the hills, patting the mountains into place, and giving breath to the wind. He set the galaxy in motion, and made the darkness and the morning. And He thinks it's perfectly OK to tell us about Himself, and He sent His Son to redeem us. I find all of this so amazing. So breath-taking. So fall-on-my-knees earthshattering.
What love, mercy, and grace.....
He who forms the mountains, who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,who turns dawn to darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth— the Lord God Almighty is his name. (Amos 4:13)
We spent the weekend out camping with family to celebrate our grandson’s birthday. It is such a joy to be able to be out immersed in God’s creation. I love this following verse from Isaiah 55:12
ReplyDelete“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
I have never heard of that tree or the intricate relationship with the caterpillars! He is indeed an awesome God. A good day to remember this fact after the atrocity that happened in a city just a couple of hours from where I live! We must remember He is in control of all.
ReplyDeleteCathy (above in the first comment) spoke to something that I too have experienced while out walking, say, with my eyes open and my heart just joyous in His gifts to us.
ReplyDelete