Digging Is a Snap
2 Corinthians 9:5
“Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation.”
The strange partnership between the snapping shrimp and the goby is absolutely necessary if both creatures are to survive. The nearly blind shrimp relies on the goby, a small fish, in the same way a blind person relies on his Seeing Eye dog. The goby relies on the safety of the complex tunnel system the shrimp digs.
The shrimp is well designed for digging. Once a tunnel is started, the shrimp can dig a burrow large enough for both itself and the goby within a few hours. Each of its five pairs of legs is specialized. The first pair of claws is designed for carrying sediment out of the burrow. The second pair of legs is designed to probe for and clean objects as well as scratching sediment from walls. Pairs three, four and five are walking legs that also work well for scratching material from tunnel walls. On its abdomen the shrimp has several appendages that allow it to move rapidly to protection. Other appendages can create water currents that shift sand back from the digging site.
The snapping shrimp, which is less than two inches long, can dig a system of tunnels covering several square feet within a few days. The burrow will have several entrances, as much as four feet apart. All lead to a chamber at the deepest point of the system.
The Creator has given both the goby and the shrimp different gifts that they both need to live. If they did not share their gifts with each other, neither could survive. What gifts has the Creator given you to share?
Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, I thank You that You have left none of us without a special gift to be used for our own good and the good of others. Help me to better understand what You have given me and how to use it. Amen.
REF: Yanagisawa, Y. 1990. Strange seabed fellows. Natural History, Aug. p. 46.
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