A Prayer of Humility*

O Lord, I do not know
how You flung the stars into space,
Or the time You took
to carve the canyon we call "Grand,"
But this I know: whether in a moment
or spanning millions or billions of years,
You designed and crafted these, and all of life, to be
to the praise of Your majesty.
Amen.


*occasioned by a rethinking of some of my previously held dogmas

Songs in the Night

I have become a connoisseur of sound. Nature sounds to be precise. I'm a visual person, enamored of images and deeply enjoying opportunties to practice nature photography. But in the process of completing the volunteer hours required for my Master Naturalist certification, I have been working with the county forest preserve district doing frog call surveys. These are done after sunset and I find myself spending hours alone after dark in the county forest preserves. There's not a lot to see (though when the moon is nearly full there is a beauty unique to its pale light) but there is plenty to listen to-- sometimes a rich tapestry of sound; sometimes vast stillness with only brief interruptions of sound; sometimes subtle sounds emanating from the darkness. There's the crescendoing chorus of spring peepers or cricket frogs building in intensity and volume only to taper off again for an interlude of silence before starting all over. There's the sharp slap of a beaver's tale on the water warning of my intrusion into their world of night. There's the nearby chattering of two raccoons apparently in some disagreement, the distant hooting of a great horned owl, the snorting and stamping of a herd of deer in the meadow as startling to me as I am to them. As the weather gets warmer the insects increasingly become a part of the symphony of night. They're only getting started now with the whirring of some nearby crickets, the fluttering of a moth when my flashlight is on, the buzzing of a mosquito.

At a time I'm normally home sleeping, there's an awful lot going on in the woods and on the water. Some of the sound is incidental -- the startled deer, the angry raccoons and the buzzing mosquito (indeed, it would be to the mosquito's advantage to approach me more silently!), but much of it is purposeful, in particular, the calling of the frogs. Using sound to attract a mate makes a lot of sense when the attracting is to be done at night (some species will call in the daylight hours as well as after dark, spring peepers and cricket frogs among them, but after sunset is definitely prime time). I marvel at the diversity of the frog and toad calls-- a much greater variety than the stereotyped cartoon-style "ribbit". And I am impressed by how well and how far most of the calls carry, over the water especially, but also across land. In my surveys I have frequently discovered temporary bodies of water I didn't know existed by following the calls of one or more frogs or toads. It's a system of finding a mate beautifully designed for life after dark at the water's edge and just one more small detail attesting to the brilliance and creativity of the Master Designer. "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!" (Psalm 150:6) Amen I say to that.

My experiences in the woods at night have given me a whole new appreciation for the richness of our audio environment. Please enjoy this sampling of "sound bites" from my wandering in the woods (or hop over to my Frog Blog and Podcast).

Sample Sound Bites:

• the rise and fall of a chorus of spring peepers
  


• a couple of western chorus frogs
  


• intro by crickets, feautred solo by eastern gray tree frog, percussion by cricket frogs, incidental sounds by geese on the lake, a bird in the woods and distant American toads
  

A Prayer of Thanks

I thank you Lord for squirrels
that running and chasing each other through the trees
remind me that You are also the creator of PLAY
and life need not always be grim and serious
to be pleasing to You.

I thank you Lord for trees that stand
majestic and tall as a quiet reminder
of Your majesty, beauty and power.

The Beauty of the Snow

Again I will maintain that God in His wisdom intended snow for more than just winter precipitation, important as that is. Through the prophet Isaiah God unveils it as a message of hope:

"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18

Even earlier David in a prayer of repentance had recognized the aptness of the image in his plea for cleansing:

"Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Psalm 51:7

Fresh-fallen snow is a message of hope. It speaks of a new beginning, but as the snow itself does not spring up from the earth but rather falls from the heavens, so our hope for forgiveness and a new beginning do not rest with us. Isaiah and David are both clear on this point: there is a need for repentance-- a turning away from our sins, but forgiveness comes from the grace of God. The cleansing spoke of in both passages cannot be the result of human effort-- it is the gift of God. As the snow comes down to blanket the earth in beauty, a picture of purity and a new beginning, so the grace of forgiveness comes to all who are willing to turn to God from their sins.

Dragonfly Wings

Creation sings in dragonfly wings--
In membranes elegant and clear,
It proclaims God's wisdom and power
To everyone willing to hear.

If you've ever spent any time watching dragonflies in flight, then you have some idea of what amazing creatures they are. I struggled long and hard to express my thoughts and feelings in the brief poem above and only managed to scratch the surface. Most adult insects have two pairs of wings, but dragonflies and damselflies are the only insects capable of moving their front wings and back wings independently of each other. This fact accounts for the amazing aerobatic feats and speed they are able to achieve (some species attain speeds of up to 35 miles/hour or more¹). There are four recognized flight styles based on varying patterns of synchronization between front and back wings, each with distinct advantages and uses. But dragonflies and damselflies can also adjust wing shape and attack angle for each wing and they do this for each one independently of the the others as needed, leading to incredibly versatile and unparalleled flight capabilities.²

Only recently have researchers been coming to a more complete understanding of the complex aerodynamic forces at work in dragonfly flight. "Whereas aircraft use only two methods for generating lift (and one of these only for very short periods) dragonflies use at least four distinct physical processes: classical lift, supercritical lift, vortices, and vortex shedding."³ Other research suggests that dragonflies have the ability to approach prey or other dragonflies undetected by flying in such a way as to appear motionless to the other insect's compound eyes!⁴ It's not surprising that research into dragonfly flight holds potential for applications as diverse as recreational sail design⁵ and military aircraft.⁶

Not only are dragonflies and damselflies the unparalleled aerobatic fighter pilots of the insect world, but they've been at it a long time. The earliest fossil dragonflies discovered so far are said to be some 325 million years old, and apart from size-- some of the early fossilized examples have wingspans approaching 30"-- the wings are very similar to dragonfly wings today.⁷ Dragonfly wings, and dragonflies themselves, are masterpieces that testify boldly to the brilliance of their Creator!

¹ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonflies
² http://tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=2471
³ Ibid
⁴ http://info.anu.edu.au/MAC/Media/Media_Releases/_2003/_030605Dragonflies.asp
⁵ http://www.transitionrig.com/fly1.htm
⁶ http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200306/s872489.htm
⁷ http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/uniramia/odonatoida.html