Daily Devotional – March 17

Biology

You have probably have heard of the monarch butterfly migrating some 4,000 miles round trip, but have you heard of the painted lady butterfly migration? This butterfly migrates between Europe and Africa, flying an incredible 9,000 miles round trip. Why has this not been discovered until recently? People have not spotted these butterflies migrating because they fly at altitudes up to 3,000 feet and at speeds of 30 mph. Radar recently discovered millions of these butterflies migrating high up in the atmosphere. More than 60,000 sightings of painted lady butterflies have also been made as far north as the Arctic Circle.

The 9,000 mile migration takes six generations to complete. A butterfly might fly from Norway to Britain where it will breed and die, and then the next five generations will carry on the migration, breeding, flying, dying in an effort to fly all the way to Africa and returning to Norway. This is amazing! The tiny creature, weighing less than a gram, with a pin-sized head, having no opportunity to learn the migration route from older butterflies, undertakes and succeeds at this epic migration. How do they know where to go? Evolution says this all happened by chance. How could it? How would the painted lady evolve the ability to fly to a place it has never been before? God set this up from the beginning to show His great power. God has woven this information into the genetic code of each butterfly so that each generation “knows” what stage of the migration cycle the butterfly is in. This information is passed on to each generation. Such a delicate mechanism shouts intelligent design!

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming...

~ Jeremiah 8:7

Source: "Pearls in Paradise" by authors Bruce Malone and Jule Von Vett

References for this devotional.