Tag: God’s stuff

The Ringing Rocks Revisited

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A lot of you weren’t here in 2013 when I posted “The Mystery of the Ringing Rocks,” and now seems as good a time as any to revisit. Besides, by now I’ve learned how to post a video to go along with it, so you can hear the rocks ring.

Yes, they ring: when tapped with a hammer, some of the rocks in the boulder field produce a musical tone. But not all of them! Which is hard to understand. And if you put in the time, you could probably find a way to play a tune on the rocks. “Happy Birthday,” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It’s been done by others.

What makes them ring? After studying them for going on 200 years, nobody knows.

Ringing rocks are found, as far as we know, in only seven places, world-wide: in England, Scotland, Australia, Mexico, Montana, and at two sites in Pennsylvania. Why are they so rare? No one knows. I’ve visited Ringing Rocks Park in Upper Black Eddy, PA, and heard the rocks ring. Back then you were allowed to climb around the boulder field and play with the rocks; I don’t know if you still can.

Just as puzzling as the rarity of this phenomenon, if you break a rock into two or more pieces, the pieces won’t ring anymore. It’s as if something spilled out and was lost. Even more puzzling, if you remove ringing rocks from one of the two boulder fields in Pennsylvania, they won’t ring anymore! Well, they will, sort of–but the sound is too low-frequency to be detected by the human ear. But if you remove a ringing rock from the other field, only a few miles away from the first one, it will still ring.

Something Biblical about it all, isn’t there?

Meanwhile, if you think you’ve got God’s creation all figured out, the ringing rocks should make you reconsider your position. And this is Mr. Nature, signing off for now.

A Natural Marvel? The Blowing Stone

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Hi, Mr. Nature here, tackling this report because Mr. Folklore took the noon balloon.

The “Blowing Stone” of Kingston Lisle, Oxfordshire, England, is a rather large boulder with holes in it. One of the holes goes all the way through. And if you blow on it, as on a trumpet, the resulting call can be heard for miles around.

The hole through the stone is apparently due to natural causes. I don’t know how anyone would have ever thought, “I wonder what would happen if I blew on this.” Maybe a freak twist of the wind made it sound, and someone was there to observe it. There’s a legend that whoever blew on the stone so that it could be heard from a famous hilltop, some miles away, would be the next king of England. There’s also a legend that says King Alfred blew on the stone to summon his warriors to fight the invading Danes.

It’s near the White Horse of Uffington, but really, Mr. Folklore will have to field that one, it’s way beyond Mr. Nature’s scope.

Today the Blowing Stone rests beside the Blowing Stone Inn. It was brought there from another location sometime in the 18th century, and first appeared on a map in 1761.

We often talk about the music made by nature, with God as its conductor; but this is the first I’ve heard of a natural musical instrument.

Unless you want to count the “ringing rocks.” But that’s another story.

‘God and Dinosaurs’ (2015)

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Although the founders and pioneers of the study of dinosaurs were all Christians, today’s atheists like to use dinosaurs as “proof” that the Bible’s wrong about pretty much everything.

But it was the 20th century that was the humanist century; and look what they did with it.

Dinosaurs, of course, were God’s handiwork. And as Bob Bakker–another Christian who’s a leading dinosaur scientist–says, God must have really enjoyed creating these babies.

God and Dinosaurs

Sanity Break: the Woolly Mammoth

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Sometimes writing about current events just wears me out. For refreshment, I turn to God’s handiwork.

Behold the woolly mammoth, as painted by the great Charles R. Knight. This was the first prehistoric animal I fell in love with. I used to dream about them. A truck would sound its horn at night, out on Route 1, and I would think it was a mammoth calling to the other mammoths.

And I don’t know why, but somehow I conceived the notion that my Aunt Betty, the nun, had the ability to obtain for me a mammoth of my own, and I used to pester her about it. Give me a break, I think I was only five years old. Poor Aunt Betty. She made me a little toy mammoth out of some kind of fur. Well, she tried. If I still had that toy, it would be among my treasures. But not as great a treasure as she herself would be.

When God restores His whole creation, I’m sure there will be mammoths once again. And we will enjoy them with our loved ones.

The Peaceable Kingdom

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Just a little glimpse of heaven–good dog napping with three kittens.

This is what it will be like when God regenerates Creation, minus sin and death. He has most graciously given us brief glimpses of it. This is where we belong. This is what He has in store for us. God is love.

The American Lion

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It’s snowing today, and we still have our Christmas tree–hooray!

Hi, Mr. Nature here, with another one of those cool Ice Age mammals that aren’t here anymore–the American Lion, Panthera leo atrox, the biggest member of the cat family ever to walk the earth. It was very similar to today’s African and Indian lions, only bigger. A lot bigger.

Why did it go extinct? Nobody knows, really. You’d think it could’ve gotten by, preying on elk and bison and other big game. God does things with His creation that we still don’t understand. Maybe He has stored them somewhere else. Maybe, when He restores all things, He’ll bring back the American lion.

The Freddy Kreuger Dinosaur

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This is a dinosaur I never heard of when I was a kid, probably because its discoverer thought it might’ve been a giant turtle.

All they’ve got are a few bones, including an extra-wide pelvis, and those enormous claws. If you think the reconstruction above looks rather fanciful, welcome to the club. There’s no skull, no teeth, so it’s not possible to guess what this creature ate.

Therizenosaurus means “scythe lizard,” named for the claws. How they were used, who knows? Someone suggested, for digging into termite mounds for yum-yums. But it would take an awful lot of termites to feed this baby, several times the size of a grown man. Maybe Therizenosaurus went around like Freddy Kreuger in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, using the claws to commit murder. We just don’t know. The few fossils that we have come from Mongolia and northern China; and except for the claws, it’s all just bits and pieces.

Bob Bakker, the scientist who did more than any other to popularize the notion of dinosaurs as active, complex, and reasonably intelligent creatures, rather than just these big lumps of stupidity that hung around in swamps, once told me he thought God created dinosaurs because He took delight in them. I would guess God had a blast, creating these. And He is probably amused–tenderly!–by our efforts to figure out the fossils.

Maybe someday He’ll let us see these animals as they really were.

Our First Snow

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I realize I don’t have a lot of company in this, unless there are more 10-year-olds reading this blog than I would ever dare hope. But today, for the first time this season, it’s snowing–and that makes me happy! In fact, as soon as I finish this post, I’m going to go outside and smoke a cigar while I stand in the snow and watch it coming down.

Well, of course I feel differently when I have to shovel it! But that comes later. I’m loving the “now” part. I can’t help it. Maybe it goes back to my childhood: if it snowed enough, no school! Few things in life are better than no school. Besides, it’s pretty! A lot of God’s stuff is pretty, and I like it.

The Tanystropheus–at Last!

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Hi, Mr. Nature here, with that Tanystropheus I would’ve shown you yesterday if I’d only remembered to do it.

This was one of the most unusual creatures ever to walk the earth. Supposedly it lived in the Triassic Period–which was less a real thing than it is merely a way for geologists to talk about earth history. Anyway, there are no more Tanystropheuses.

Marvin (I thought it needed a shorter name) was about 20 feet long, and 10 feet of that was just his neck. Marve is often depicted with this snaky neck that can practically tie itself into a sheepshank, but that would have been impossible: there were only 12 or 13 bones in that long neck, severely limiting its flexibility. A giraffe has only seven neck-bones, and you see what they have to go through if they want a drink of water. Marvin’s neck would have been almost as stiff as a giraffe’s.

He’s also depicted, often, as living mostly in the water–probably because scientists just don’t know what to do with him on land. We have no evidence for this. Some of the fossils suggest a lot of muscle in the pelvic area, which would have counterbalanced the weight of the neck. But how this animal actually lived is a mystery to everybody. Don’t be too hard on paleontologists for not having figured it out. There are lots of things in the fossil record that no one will ever figure out.

What did God do with these strange and spectacular animals He created–the ones that aren’t here anymore? Well, frankly, we don’t know: He hasn’t made it known to us.

Maybe someday He will.

God’s Stuff: Pet Squirrel

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God’s love runs like an electric current all through His creation. Even in its fallen state, God has not abandoned it. And we can see love everywhere, if we look. Even in a squirrel.

You wouldn’t think there could be so much in such a little package of an animal; but you’d be wrong.

Patty’s friend Carol sent us this video last night, and I’m posting it now so I won’t forget to do it later.