GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 22
GOD’S WORD FOR SEPTEMBER 22 ~ ~ GENESIS 1:11 ~ ~ “Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to their kind with seed in them”; and it was so.”
New research shows that, when attacked, many plants make chemicals that will give munching insects a bad case of indigestion. They also seem to warn their neighbors about the attack so that they, too, start up their defenses. Some plants even call in air defenses.
Some plants, when attacked by caterpillars, release a scent that scientists simply describe as “green leaf odors.” These odors attract certain female wasps, who home in on the plant. The wasp will sting the caterpillar, leaving him paralyzed. She then lays her eggs in the pest, who remains paralyzed until the hatching young wasps consume it. That “green leaf odor” is a plant’s way of calling in air defenses. It is communication between plant and insect!
Some evolutionary biologists are upset with the intelligence and design in this arrangement. Plants are supposed to be too simple to communicate. As one evolutionist put it, this is “not a defense against anything” … it “just happens.”
I remember trying that excuse as a child. The cookie jar fell to the floor while I was trying to sneak a cookie. “It just happened,” I said, as if the cookie jar had come alive before my unbelieving eyes and jumped to the floor. My mother reminded me that things don’t “just happen.” And science teaches us that things don’t “just happen.” Not only do we see that God exists, we also see a bit of His love in providing for the plant and His intelligence as the author of communication.
Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; Yet you shall eat the plants of the field;
It’s a good thing we don’t have to worry about enemies—in fact, The Word told us not to.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
While we’re defenseless against everything that could come against us, if we are in Christ, we need not worry, because, as He told us in many places by so many of His inspired writers, He is our steady and non-moving Rock and mighty fortress.
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my savior, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Psalm 27:1 ~ ~ “The Lord is the defense of my life; Whom should I dread?”
“God is my strong fortress; And He sets the blameless on His way”
Live in the Light of Our Lord 