Soothing Sound of Cricket Chirp

I can't explain it and don't know when it started. It's an overwhelming love for chirping crickets. I can't explain why I go into total relaxation at the sound of the chirp.

As my readers know, I was raised in New Mexico, and there are no crickets there! Crickets live in moisture, and New Mexico is dry.

This morning was a perfect example of what I mean. I was talking to one of my kids until 6:00 AM. As we said our "I love yous", I heard the sound of my cricket. My body immediately relaxed and the next thing I remember it was 7:00 AM.

Now I have studied crickets -- male and female -- and all of the violent behavior of the female crickets, so please don't write to me. I know the females eat the males after they mate. But that doesn't matter.

God knows our deepest loves and needs. This morning He mercifully sent the soothing sound of the cricket chirp to help me relax. I have had great difficulty staying asleep, so sleep is my #1 need.

The next time you hear the cricket chirp, here are some clues that will help you know what you're hearing:

Loud and monotonous sound?  He's calling to attract a female.

Softer Chirp?  He's courting a nearby female.

Aggressive Sound?  Two males are squaring off.


Strange loud chip?  A danger alert when the male senses trouble.

I wish I knew when I fell in love with the relaxing cricket chirp.

   

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Chickens Are Not Stupid!

Are chickens as stupid as we've been told? Evidently not, according to several studies of how animals communicate.

We have all heard that our ability to communicate our thoughts is one of the things that make humans unique.

On the evolutionary scale of things, language was considered a sophisticated development.

Supposedly, chickens didn't have any thoughts worth communicating anyway.

Now, this view is being challenged by multiple studies of animal communication.

Most of the studies have looked to see if there is any pattern to various species' distress calls. For example, researchers have found vervet monkeys are very specific as they warn each other of danger.

When the danger is a large monkey-eating creature like a tiger, the danger call is "wrr." At this call, all the monkeys in earshot hurry up their trees.

If an eagle threatens them, the alarm call is a grunt, causing the monkeys to dive into the underbrush. I

If the threat is a snake, the alarm call becomes chuttering sounds. This leads the monkeys to stand up and look around the ground for the threat.

Researchers were amazed that specific sounds lead to specific actions, depending on the threat.

Other animals, like ring-tailed lemurs, have been found to have their own pattern of communication.

And yes, even the lowly chicken has a different warning call, depending on whether the threat is a raccoon on the ground or a hawk in the air!

So it's not our ability to communicate that makes us unique, but the fact that we were created in God's image spiritually, and we have been redeemed by Christ's blood.

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Nasty Secret of Plants

Have you ever wondered how you could get cut by a blade of grass or the edge of a palm leaf? Well, plants have a nasty secret.

They absorb silica. Silica is the same stuff of which glass is made. Then plants store it in their cells!

Some plants, like corn, store large mounts of silica on their leaves, making the edges of the leaves sharp and stone-making plants strong enough to give you a nasty slash. And yes, they do this largely to protect themselves.

Insects that like to eat plant leaves find that when they chew on plants with lots of silica, their mouth parts wear out faster. Plants also store silica between their cells, giving them a strong, stony skeleton.

These silica particles made by plants are called phytoliths, which literally means “plant stones.” Chemically they are colorless and transparent opals. They can range in size from a thousandth of a millimeter to a millimeter.

Each plant forms phytoliths that are unique in shape, and some plants make up to a dozen different types.

After the plant has died and decayed, the phytoliths and their unique shapes remain in the soil. This means that with a microscope and a good knowledge of which plants make which phytoliths, you could examine the soil and tell which plants have grown there in the past.

This is how scientists learned that the Indians were growing corn in South America 2,500 years before the birth of Christ!


Notes:
Ivars Peterson. 1983. “Plant Stones.” Science News, Vol. 124. Aug. 6, pp. 88-94. Photo: Image of a phytolith (bulliform). Courtesy of Henri Georges. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.

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Amazed By The Designer and All These Seeds!

Ever watched a seed burst? I have, and it was truly amazing! Just to consider all of the life inside that seed is mind-boggling!

The Master Designer constantly amazes me with His Design.

Any seed, whether an ordinary bean seed, an acorn or a coconut, is a marvel of life. Consider the oak tree.

Within the acorn, weighing less than an ounce, is a tiny embryonic oak tree, enough nutrition to get the young tree started on its own and all of the coded information needed not only to direct the start of growth, but to also guide the design and development of tons and tons of tree!

Lotus seeds can remain alive and sprout for up to 1,000 years!

If it had been up to the first plant to figure out how to accomplish this miracle by trial and error, we would still be waiting for the first seed to develop! But Scripture solves this problem for us by clearly stating that God is the author of all life!

Besides Scripture's clear statement on the matter, it seems most unscientific to say that the tiny, packaged bundle of life we call a seed was not carefully designed and created but came about 'by chance', don't you think?

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” ~Mother Teresa

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The Darkest Day In World History

There is one branch of human knowledge that consistently supports the biblical record of the darkest day in world history. Do you know which branch that is? 

It is historical science.

In Matthew 27:45 we read that darkness covered the land from 12:00 noon until 3:00 in the afternoon, while Christ hung dying on the cross for our sins.

The biblical language that describes this darkness makes it clear that it was not due to clouds. Nor could this darkness be caused by an eclipse of the sun. Christ's crucifixion took place at Passover, a time when the moon is full.

Besides, a solar eclipse never lasts for three hours.

It is interesting to note that this darkness was also recorded in Egypt. According to one ancient record, as the same darkness descended upon Egypt, it was so fearfully dark that Dinoysius of Egypt exclaimed, "Either the God of Nature is suffering, or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin."

Indeed, the God of nature, the Word who created everything that exists, had left His heavenly glory to repair the damage humanity had done to His work. He took our form upon Himself so that He could carry our sins.

And as He experienced the full pain of God's just punishment for our sin in His perfect body and perfect mind, the God of nature was truly suffering and even dying. His burden was our sin, so His death gives us life, and His resurrection makes that life worthwhile because it is, once again, a daily walk with our Creator.

Is there darkness and hopelessness in your life? Come to His cross and know that there He has restored you to your Creator.


Notes:
Corliss, William R. 1983. "Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related Weather Phenomena." Glen Arm, MD: The Sourcebook Project. p. 31. Photo: "The Crucifixion" by Simon Vouet (1590-1649).

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Tea or Pills?

Did you know people were naturally alleviating headaches long before aspirin was on the market?

Any herbologist can tell you that the most common form in which aspirin has been taken is as Willow Bark Tea.  Today, we still have a choice between tea and pills.

The aspirin tablet was hailed as the miracle drug of the twentieth century. Although it took the twentieth century to flavor, coat and stamp little letters on aspirin, people have been using aspirin for centuries.

Aspirin has relieved billions of headaches and brought nearly as many fevers under control over the years. In recent years, aspirin has become even more important since studies have shown that as little as half an aspirin per day can help prevent heart attacks.

Despite its long standing use in medicine, physicians had no idea how aspirin worked until a few decades ago.

Researchers now know that aspirin does not simply mask the pain of a headache, but it chemically turns off the cause of the average headache. It does this by deactivating the chemical made by the blood vessels that causes them to constrict.

Another member of that same family of chemicals, called prostaglandins, prevents blood platelets from sticking together, helping blood to flow more freely and preventing heart attacks. This is also why aspirin can cause stomach bleeding.

In His foreknowledge, our Creator knew that the human race would fall into sin. He knew that among the effects of a world changed by sin would be pain and sickness.

In His mercy He provided plants that would make the active ingredient in aspirin.

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