Photos: Atlantic Puffins as seen in Iceland on Flatey Island. Photos by Barbara Lane Geistfeld, D.V.M.
by Barbara Lane Geistfeld, D.V.M.
God made puffins to make us laugh.
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1: 16-17).
God has truly blessed me with many “good and perfect” gifts in my 70 plus years of life. I could create a very long list that includes my faith, my family and friends, a job I loved, good health, and world travel … endless perfect gifts! But as you might expect from the D.V.M. after my name, one of the things that tops any list is God’s incredibly beautiful and complex creation, especially the animals. The iridescent colors of the fish on a coral reef, a macaw’s brilliant feathers, a mustang stallion standing on a hill under purple storm clouds, a Horny Toad—aka the Texas Horned Lizard—all make my heart swell with awe and joy and gratitude toward my heavenly Father who has given it all to me to enjoy.
God has a purpose behind these gifts of nature, behind these gifts of life. They are not random afterthoughts of a hodge-podge creation. He wants all of us to see Him for Who He is by what He has done. There is none like Him! The incredible complexity of the human body is another of the many marvels that the world ignores in their pursuit of personal freedom and their own ideologies. God says to us in His creation, “Look at yourself! You are incredibly made. How can you doubt my presence?”
“For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made …” (Romans 1:20).
So, the “things that have been made” include the Atlantic Puffin. It’s the beak, right? Without the beak they are just another black and white bird. God made puffins to make us laugh. He made puffins to get us to take a second look at His creation. Pretty hard to ignore a puffin. He made puffins as a “good and perfect gift” to bring us pure joy. God desires us to look at all His creation with new eyes and to see the beauty He created for us because He is the Father of lights. He is unchanging in His love for us.
We desperately need our Father of lights. When life around us is dark and despairing, when troubles are real and overwhelming, when our hurts outweigh our joys, take a moment to think about God’s beautiful creation given for us as a “good and perfect gift.” Take a moment to remember that we have another Light in our world—our Lord Jesus Who is the Creator of all things and is the light of men.
“[The Word] was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:2-4).
We know that life will continue to throw bad things our way, so every so often, let us take a moment to admire God’s creation that surrounds us—and remember the puffin!
