Dancing Frogs and Zombie Wasps: The Delight of a Creation Unobserved

The Greater Mekong Region has proven to be an El Dorado for scientists.  Between 1997 and 2010, 2,216 new species of plants and animals were discovered in this area of Southeast Asia, and many more since then.  In 2014 alone, 139 new species of animals were identified. Among these were dancing frogs and zombie wasps.

Every wonder why God created things that will never be seen by man? Nature holds countless wonders that are yet to be discovered. Why, for example, did He create planets that will never hold life? Why stars that will never be seen?

New stars and planets are regularly found including the most massive ever discovered, a whopping 265x the mass of our own sun. A couple of years ago scientists announced a new solar system with the largest number of planets ever found in one other than our own, and there are countless heavenly bodies beyond the reach of our strongest telescopes.

You don’t have to leave the solar system to encounter the never-before-seen. Every year there are new species of animals and plants discovered. These creatures have lived and died for centuries, unseen by the eye of man. Hidden within the earth are treasures that will possibly never be discovered. Flowers blossom never to be enjoyed. The unexplored ocean depths teem with billions of creatures waiting to be observed.

Are they all purposeless? We know nature is a testimony to man of God’s power and greatness, but what if they have no one to testify to? What if their entire existence is unobserved?

I don’t claim to understand all that is in the mind of God, but Psalm 104.31 gives at least part of an explanation. “God will rejoice in His works.” God takes pleasure in His creation, and even if no human gets to enjoy it, He does. The beauty, wonder, intricacy, and glory of nature delights its Creator.

As we observe the wonders of creation it is appropriate that we find amazement, significance, and delight in them. But we should find more than that. They point us to someone beyond themselves – a delighted Creator, and they cause us to say with the Psalmist, “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live . . . my meditation of him will be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.” (Ps. 104)

{Originally published November, 2010}