God and Mother Nature

While we usually think of God as masculine, and not everyone believes this to be true, the majority of us believe it. When it comes to Mother Nature it would seem God is female. It is my fervent thought that God and Mother Nature are the same being.

When we compare how Mother Nature compares with man-made products there really is no comparison. The list is endless so I’m just going to hit the high spots. Let’s start with a low beam and work up.

Bats have a built-in sonar system that would put our radar to shame. A bat flying though a window is hard enough. The bat does not see the window. His built-in radar tells him where to fly. You could narrow this window down to a hole the size of a softball and the bat would still go through the hole without touching the sides.

Now think about fur on any animal. Most fur is beautiful. There isn’t a winter cold enough to freeze arctic animals. They may fall prey to hunters or predators but freeze to death, not on your life. The beaver can construct a dam in such a manor that it will never wash away. Sometimes it can’t even be removed by T.N.T. As a kid I swam in a small lake thanks to some industrious beavers.

Take a close look at any nest. These birds put the nest together with their beaks. They make a paste we can not begin to make with the same products. These nests stand winds that sometimes blow down the tree with the nest still intact.

The next time you are shopping feel the texture of a winesap apple. They have a natural wax that simply cannot be duplicated. This is why winesap apples last a full year in storage. The natural wax protects the apple form insects (it’s somewhat bitter) but most of all it protects against oxidation.

Mother Nature gave cats of all sizes great speed and quickness to catch prey. Mother Nature gave all cats small lungs so that they can not run for any great distance. This equals out so that the prey of cats, especially the big cats, are not exterminated. Many times it is weaker prey that is caught and killed for food.

Let’s move up to the largest animal, the elephant. This animal can find water when there is no water visible to it or other animals. Somehow their sense of detecting water under dry beds or gulches is phenomenal. Other animals will follow an elephant knowing the elephant will sense water and dig with its massive hooves until water shows up.

Animals fascinate me. I wouldn’t walk across the street to see a caged animal but I’ll never miss an animal in the wild show like “Wild Kingdom” if I could possibly help it. Jean and I watch squirrels from our kitchen window. Also a collection of birds. We enjoy all the creatures but find the squirrel most fascinating. God created all of us. Let’s take care of the creatures we call the “wild kingdom” as well as the ones we think of as domestic. They are all children of Mother Nature.

For nearly 25 years, until his death in 2015, retired grocer Don Behm wrote a column for The Storm Lake Times, “Cracker Barrel.” Don’s everyman view of everyday life was a favorite of Times readers. This was first published on Nov. 9, 1994.