Praying Mantis Day 357

 Sunday morning, as I spent time soaking(alone in peaceful worship) and praying, I felt blessed to  share my space with a praying mantis. At a glance it appeared that we were both in the same mind-set, praying!  He or she couldn't`t tell, didn`t even mind posing for a close up photo.  Romans 12:12  Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

 I`ve included some interesting facts about this praying-like critter.  The praying mantis is named for its prominent front legs, which are bent and held together at an angle that suggests the position of prayer. The larger group of these insects is more properly called the praying mantids.

By any name, these fascinating insects are formidable predators. They have triangular heads poised on a long "neck," or elongated thorax. Mantids can turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings with two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them.

Typically green or brown and well camouflaged on the plants among which they live, mantis lie in ambush or patiently stalk their quarry. They use their front legs to snare their prey with reflexes so quick that they are difficult to see with the naked eye. Their legs are further equipped with spikes for snaring prey and pinning it in place.

Moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects are usually the unfortunate recipients of unwanted mantid attention. However, the insects will also eat others of their own kind. The most famous example of this is the notorious mating behavior of the adult female, who sometimes eats her mate just after—or even during—mating. Yet this behavior seems not to deter males from reproduction.

Even though the praying mantis will turn and eat there own, they have survived because that`s how God made them. They where created in His love with a purpose and a plan for their existence; surviving to glorify God.  Weren`t we also created with the same plan and purpose?  Now to the question of the day, who was created first, man or the praying mantis?????

Deuteronomy 4:32  Ask now about the former day, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other.  Has anything so great as this happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

Thank you Father God, I love your sense of humor, it would be nice to turn my head 180 degrees like the praying mantis, but I like me just the way you created me!   Psalm 139:14  I will praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your words are wonderful, I know them full well..... Thank you for loving me!  Psalm 9:1-2  I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;  I will tell of all your wonders.  I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. AMEN.