Daily Devotional – May 10

Biology

Sponges are peculiar animals. They have no heart, lungs, stomach, or nerves. They are like a hollow sac with a large opening opposite its base. They are filter feeders. Most sponges eat tiny, floating particles and plankton, which they filter through their pores. Cleaner water is released out of the top of the sponge. Sponges act as super-filters cleaning the ocean of its bacteria, algae, filth, and debris. A full grown sponge can filter the equivalent of a bathtub full of water in only one hour!

Evolutionary biologists like to refer to the 4,000 species of sponges as “simple animals.” But is this really a simple animal? An experiment was done in which the sponge tissue was pressed through a fine mesh; this broke the sponge into individual cells. Amazingly, the sponge cells rejoined, forming a whole sponge! Don’t try this with the cells of your body – you won’t come back together like this “simple” creature!

You can even make a “mixed sponge smoothie”, blending together the cells of different species of sponges. Each cell, from each species, will find similar cells and reconnect! Simple? Hardly! Creative ingenuity by the Creator, yes!

Remember his marvelous works that he hath done;…

~ Psalm 105:5

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

References for this devotional.