Sunday, February 18, 2007

An Unusual Find


In a corner of the attic in the Smithsonian Museum lay an old Havana cigar box waiting to reveal a secret clue that that would lead to an amazing discovery.

How long it lay there, I don’t know, but in the spring of 1960 a young man by the name of Kjell Sandved arrived to conduct research for his encyclopedia on animal behavior.
One day he was standing on top of a high ladder looking at stacked boxes and drawers containing butterflies and moths and he discovered the old , long forgotten, cigar box.
Opening it , he found it was full of exotic butterflies and moths. To his utter amazement what caught his eye was a silvery letter ‘F’ woven into the tapestry of one of the top butterfly’s wings.
Realizing that he had found a piece of a puzzle he shared his excitement with his assistant, Barbara Bedette. They reasoned that if there was one letter on one butterfly’s wings then surely there would be others.
Abandoning their original research at the Smithsonian Institute, they dedicated themselves to search for the rest of the alphabet. Because of the delicacy of the butterflies’ wings they could not be handled without destroying them, therefore, all the pictures had to be taken of live butterflies in their natural surroundings.
They traveled the world for the next 20 years to complete their search for all the letters and numerals of the alphabet.

Is it by accident that all the letters of our English language are inscribed on the butterfly wings? Or is it by design… to delight and amaze us at how detailed and careful God has been to leave His signature in hidden places.

Why the English alphabet? and not other languages?
I think because……………
As…..
God used the Romans to build an infrastructure of highways that connected the then known world populations. These roads were the means by which the gospel was spread to all peoples, allowing the early church to grow!
So also….
God knew that the universal language would one day be English - not just for international business but also to spread His word. We have some friends teaching English in China and they use the bible to do it !

Doesn’t it give you a sense of security to know how in control God is of everything that happens? Knowing that English would one day be the accepted universal language , he foretold it by inscribing it’s alphabet on butterfly wings!
Perhaps to say, “See, I knew it all along!”
Proof that He is indeed All-Knowing - not just the past but the future also!!
In a world that is more and more moving away from faith in an infinite and all-knowing God, He has left proof for those who seek Him.

”For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory , for ever! Amen!!”

1 comment:

Yokooso said...

Thank-you Julie I had not heard that story before about the butterflies and the purpose stories from below are awesome as well...thank-you...I do pray that God takes my garbage and turns it into gold too...