Editor’s Note: Ick and Awe

Last summer, I placed a bouquet of zinnias on my windowsill. For days, I noticed one of the flowers moving. “Probably trembling in a small draft from the window,” I reasoned. Finally, my roommate spotted the source of the tremors—a small worm. Turns out, this caterpillar, called a camouflaged looper, dons flower particles to blend into its floral habitat.

Sarah Eshleman
Editor in Chief

While choosing the items for this issue’s science news department, our team read about another caterpillar, whose macabre style earned it the foreboding nickname “the bone collector.” It lives in spider webs, evading detection by dressing in leftovers from the spider’s last meal: wings, exoskeleton bits, and, to finish the ensemble, a beetle leg or ant head.

Nothing, neither wonderous nor weird, surprises me of the animal kingdom. As author Annie Dillard quipped, “Fish gotta swim and bird gotta fly; insects, it seems, gotta do one horrible thing after another.” Fallen though creation may be, still, I’m fascinated.

My managing editor, Laura, not so enamored of insect indiscretions, created an “ick chart,” similar to the pain scale in a doctor’s office, only with such progressive levels as “ick with tears,” “ick with vomit,” and “ick with death.” With it, she rates her revulsion of vicious or unsightly creatures. Ick, it seems, is her way of processing the natural world.

Perhaps I should make my own chart. With each new discovery, “wonder with a smile,” “wonder with tears,” “wonder with a grimace,” but always, “wonder with worship.” When I look at these creeping things, I see the handiwork of the Creator who dreamed them up, like inspecting an elaborate ring on a goldsmith’s workbench. The artist might be in the next room, but his work bears evidence of his existence.

Though outlandish caterpillars proclaim the existence of a Creator, they are insufficient to describe their Craftsman, just as a ring with intricate filigree cannot profile its jeweler.

The early Irish monk St. Columbanus said, “If you wish to know the Creator, come to know his creatures.” You’ll often hear similar notions in nature devotionals. But in his article, “Can the Heavens Declare the Age of the Earth?”, Dr. Terry Mortenson warns against sentiments that equate the general revelation in creation with the special revelation of God’s inspired Word.

The camouflaged looper’s charming couture fails to express the richness of God’s lovingkindness. The bone collector stops short of declaring God’s righteousness. Likewise, these con artists cannot tell us how or when they were created or why they need protection in a fallen world. Only Genesis can tell us that. And only God’s Word can tell us the gospel.

However you view the world—with ick or wonder—be sure that your worldview starts with the Word. Worship will inevitably follow.