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MIRACLE OF THE MONARCH

You have often heard how every year many birds fly south for the winter and back north in the spring to raise their families. Jeremiah spoke about this migration when he said, "Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming" (Jer. 8:7 NKJV).

But did you know there is an insect -- the Monarch butterfly -- which also makes this annual round trip and takes four generations to do it!

How can that be? It is one of God's little secrets that researchers are still puzzling over. Here's how it works.

The original generation of Monarch butterflies starts out from a southern location like Mexico or Cuba. In the early spring they begin flying north. Somewhere in the southern United States, they stop and lay their eggs on milkweed plants. These adults die soon after.

Between May and July these eggs -- the second generation -- hatch, feed on the milkweed, become larvae (caterpillars), spin themselves a cocoon, and complete their development into a butterfly. By June or July they are adults ready to continue the migration north, going as far as the northern United States. They find some milkweed, lay their eggs, and die.

The third generation goes through the cycle again, arriving in southern Canada around July or August. They too lay their eggs on milkweed and die.

The fourth generation which hatches from these eggs has a very different procedure. By October they are adults and a God-given instinct tells them to begin the two- to three-thousand-mile trip back to their southern origins.

It is truly amazing how they know which way to go and where to end up. They arrive back in the very spot that their great grand-parents started from, sometimes even the same tree, even though they have never been there before! "Oh Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all," (Ps. 104:24 NKJV). In the spring, they will begin the cycle all over again.

God even provides for the Monarch's protection from predators. The milkweed that the young ones feed on has a poison which does not affect the Monarch larvae. It makes them taste nasty to a predator who might see them as a choice snack. A bird who has ever eaten a Monarch will avoid them in the future! This protection even covers the viceroy butterfly, a Monarch look-alike, which does not taste bad. This is a wonderful example of Ps. 145:9 "The Lord is good to all. His tender mercies are over all His works."

In His infinite creative wisdom God placed in these delicate little butterflies the precise knowledge each generation needs to fulfill its part of the cycle. If God provides so marvelously for a beautiful little butterfly, how can we not believe that He will care much more for us?