Randy Suits

God Designed the Flightless Galapagos Cormorant

Dear Eve,

The Galapagos Islands, located at the equator just 600 miles west of Ecuador, South America is home to the flightless cormorant. All other cormorants are powerful in flight as they effortlessly soar and dive into the sea to eat fish, small octopuses and eels. The flightless Galapagos Cormorant also feeds near the sea floor but no more than 100 meters from shore. They look like a duck and all four toes are joined by webbed skin, like all members of the cormorant family. The cormorant feathers are not waterproof. After each dive the small wings are spread out to dry in the warm sea breezes. Nesting typically takes place in the coldest months when marine food is most abundant and heat stress to the chicks is decreased. After an elaborate and unique courtship the couple builds a nest on the shore just above the high-tide mark. The female typically lays three eggs but usually only one chick survives. Both male and female participate in incubation and both continue to feed and brood the chick, protecting it from both heat and cold. Since Galapagos Cormorants have no natural predators, the lack of ability to fly is unimportant. These birds have no fear of humans and can be approached and picked up. Like the Garden of Eden before the fall of Adam and Eve, where there was no enmity between man and every animal after his type, these birds have no fear of man. In Genesis 1: 29-30, God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so”. In the innocence of man before their perversion and sin, there was no death in the garden. God spoke these instructions because nothing in creation was to put forth its hand or will to violently take the life of any creature created by the Most High God. All life was valued and honored. All creation was vegetarian because God made no provision for the death of any of his creatures. The Garden was not only the dominion of Man but also the earthly throne of Creator God who is Life and the giver of life. There can be no death in the presence of the Life giving God, even the Lord of Hosts. However when man decided to eat the forbidden fruit (substance with the taste, flavor and appearance of food but lacking spiritual and physical nourishment) death entered into the world. In the perfect order of God Most High, the powerful and stronger never subdues the weaker. (God is more powerful than the whole world but never uses his great unmatchable strength to bring us to our knees). With the fall of man in Eden, the godly nature which was breathed into man instantly died to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. God withdrew from the throne of the mind and heart of man (the seat of our being) by driving the sinful couple from His perfect garden of absolute peace and harmony. Without the life giving, guiding and subduing influence of God Almighty at the head and heart of man and the creatures of the earth, the powerful began to prey on the weak. Speaking of those days after the return of Jesus Christ to receive his own unto himself and his ensuing reign on earth, Isaiah 11:6 prophetically says, “In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat. The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all”. This is our great hope and expectation for the promised restoration of man to the eternal unfailing plan of God Most High. In this we can be absolutely certain that contrary to the errant teachings of the atheist Charles Darwin, the unusual creatures of the Galapagos Islands did not evolve but rather were created by an inventive God. In his wisdom he designed some creatures to confound the wisdom of man and humble us in wonder and awe. God designed the flightless Galapagos Cormorant and He is glorified in every work of his mind and creative hands.

He has designed us to fly and we have no wings, Kochany