Hi, Mr. Nature here, with a very rare and very impressive animal: the Japanese giant salamander. It’s related to our own America hellbender, which is a whopper in its own right: but this critter gets two or three times as big. A full-grown Japanese giant salamander is almost as big as you are. Not quite like the little redbacks you can find in your back yard!
There are also giant salamanders in China. Outside of the inevitable habitat loss and degradation, the biggest threat faced by these creatures is schmendricks who like to eat members of endangered species because it makes them feel like big shots. Whatever they have to say on Judgment Day had better be good.
All right, I know some of you get the creeps from looking at these animals. But they are part of God’s creation, they certainly do us no harm at all, they are rare and difficult to find–and they are worthy of our admiration, because they are the work of Our Creator’s hands.
I don’t know about you, but they leave me in awe of God’s vision.
I’m right with you on all points, Lee.
When we see anything in the natural world, we are being given an insight into our Creator’s skill and imagination. All of these creatures work together to give us the amazingly intricate natural world. They all have a place, and that place was conceived in the mind of the Creator. Any human that claims to fully understand the natural order is seriously deluded.
Until today, I had no idea that these creatures existed. It makes me wonder how many times I have been within arm’s length of some creature I didn’t even know existed. Earlier this morning, I moved a piece of plywood lying in my back yard and watched as something similar to a horned toad ran away, panicked by having lost its shelter. A small, but still fascinating vignette that took place only a few feet from the room where I sleep. I have to wonder, how many miniature dramas play out within ten feet of my head while I am asleep? (Had I lifted a piece of plywood in my home state of Colorado, there would have been numerous green “ribbon snakes” beneath. A harmless species that, nonetheless, will bite if you attempt to handle them.)
God allows us to butcher animals for food, this being stated to Noah, after the Flood. I criticize no one for eating meat and do so myself. This having been said, I think it is incumbent upon all of us to be truly thankful for the source of our nutrition and to remain aware that the lives which have ended as a consequence of our need for nutrition are valuable and ultimately come from God Himself. That is why Noah was instructed to poor out the blood of butchered animals, as a way of acknowledging the value of that animal life. To deliberately seek out the meat of an endangered species strikes me as being totally at odds with recognizing the value of the life lost in such an endeavor.
The natural world is certainly a testament to the Creator. Something I think that is often overlooked is the micro world, that things that can’t be seen with the natural eye. The complexity of things like DNA and the so-called simple cell is amazing. Even the inner workings of a simple leaf is like a miniature-factory. It’s difficult me to understand how some people can’t see God’s fingerprints in all this.
Pretty neat creatures – they look rather like mudpuppies 🙂