The Wonderful Desert Beetle

Imagine that you are in the desert. It hasn’t rained for years and you are desperate for water. What do you do?
I am a Stenocara beetle and I manage this situation all the time!
The Namib desert in Africa is where I live and it is the driest, hottest place on earth. So hot that the lizards around me have to dance from foot to foot to keep their feet from being scorched! So hot that I just saw a locust get instantly fried when it landed on the sand. But I can feed happily on the carcass completely unperturbed by the extreme heat.
What’s my secret? My great Designer made me with special heat-shock chemicals inside my body which allow me to endure the extreme heat without suffering heat exhaustion.
Plus I have an almost spherical body, about one inch in diameter, which is suspended on thin, stilt-like legs, which have minimal contact with the hot sand. Less contact, less heat.
What about the water problem? Even a beetle needs water to survive. Where do I find water in a desert where it hasn’t rained in anyone’s memory?
The only source of water in this hot desert is in an incredibly fine fog that sweeps off the Atlantic about once a week, carried by high winds. At night, when the desert cools, some of the water in the fog will condense. This is just enough water to sustain the life of some insects like me.
How do I harvest water from fog? I survive thanks to the special God-given equipment I carry on my back! Yes, I know just how to harvest water from fog!
Have you noticed how water condenses on the inside of the windows in your home, or in your car? I use a similar method of water gathering.
My back is composed of fused wing covers. These wing covers are made of bumps visible to the naked eye. But under an electron microscope each bump, no larger than a human hair, is seen to be made up of many tiny mountain ranges. The mountain peaks actually attract water. In between the peaks are waxy-coated valleys that repel water.
My bumpy back isn’t just for decoration. When the fog rolls in, I tilt my body up into the fog with my head down. (Where did I learn to do this?) As the fog passes over my back, tiny droplets form on the peaks. Once the microscopic drops are large enough, they roll down into the waxy valleys, where they continue to grow in size. Eventually the droplets roll off my back into a tiny channel that directs the water right into my mouth and, sure enough, I get a good drink of water.
What fantastic stroke of evolution developed my wonderful interacting parts so that I could drink in the desert?
No, it wasn’t evolution! Who but an All-Knowing Creator could design such an ideal apparatus for me, so that a fog that blows across the desert with gale speed several mornings a month could provide enough moisture for me to live?
Who but my Creator and Designer knows how to provide for all His living creatures? Can you and I not thank Him, and trust Him to provide for our needs now? He keeps me alive for my allotted time – but you have it even better. When you accept Him and trust Him, He makes it possible for you to keep on living – forever!
“This is the promise He has promised us – eternal life” (1 John 2:25)

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