Why does a Luna moth exist?  My daughter saw one sitting outside the drive-thru window at the coffee shop where she works in town.  They are huge and beautiful and very short-lived.  They have no digestive system and eat nothing during their 7-10 days of adult life.  They are large, beautiful, and green mating machines.

In this world, there are things that can be explained by science.  We can track the life cycles from egg, to larva, to pupa, to adult.  There, now we understand what a Luna moth is, right?  But we can think we have it all figured out and wrapped up with a bow, without even having started the deeper and more troubling question.  What are they for?  Why?

There are two possible solutions to this question.  One ancient and common, one more modern and thin.  Let’s start with the modern and thin reason given for the existence of Luna moths.  The answer that the materialistic scientific minds give to the reason and purpose of Luna moths is . . . (Drum roll please) . . . No reason at all.  They exist by chance.  They are beautiful for no good reason.  They just are.  ‘And who do you think you are to ask such deep questions?!  Don’t you know that you are just goo, too!?’

While you might accuse me of giving a negative caricature of the materialist approach to purposes,  I don’t think I am exaggerating the position.  There is NO deeper meaning.  The reason that Luna moths exist is because chance and random muck was electrified by chance and random lightning, that evolved through chance and random mutations . . . And then suddenly (over billions of years) . . . Luna moths!

The second solution has been around much longer and has only recently been unlearned by the learned.   There is divine design.  And all of creation speaks to his power, organization, faithfulness, and creativity.  The Luna moth brings awe to me in praise of the Creator, because I believe when I am looking at a Luna moth I am looking at someone’s work.  Someone MADE this thing.  And he made it for a purpose. The purpose being to glorify Himself.

Science can define the heck out of WHAT a Luna moth is.  But science falls on its face when it comes to defining WHAT a Luna moth is FOR.

I look at this created world with eyes of wonder and awe.  Not awe only of the material world, but wonder and awe of the God who made it all.  The created world points to the Creator!  Where there is beauty, it is His beauty.  And the purpose of beauty is to give credit to the artist who created it!

What are some of the things you’ve seen in creation that bring you to praise your Creator?