I highly recommend you and your family see the National Geographic movie March of the Penguins. We saw it for free at the Camp Kinser theater this evening. My 3 year old boy kept saying "March of Penglins, march of Penglins..."
Typical of a "science" movie, it gave no glory to the Triune God and Creator but, for me, I felt like standing up and giving a Doxology of Praise to Him.
Around the March timeframe every year Penguins get out of the water where they have fed for months and walk for 70 miles to a common location. They all converge to the same place from different spots, at nearly the same time, to the place they were born. The route changes every year as ice formations inhibit their progress.
In a long ceremony a male and female form a monogonous relationship that will last for 9 months and mate. An egg is produced at the onset of winter. The egg is delicately transferred from the female to the male and the female, nearly starving, makes a 70 mile journey back to the ocean to fill her belly.
For the next 4 months, in the dead of Anarctic winter, months wihout sunlight, the male Penguins keep the egg warm and huddle in a constantly moving formation. The egg hatches literally 1-2 days before the females return, belly full, to keep the new Penguin alive.
The male transfers the chick to the female who feeds the chick while the males, who have lost 50% of their body weight, trek 70 miles to the ocean to feed.
This back and forth cycle continues for the next 3-4 months as the ice retreats, the cycle shortens, and eventually the ice has retreated to within a few hundred yards of the birth place. Incidentally, this is the reason why they have to travel so far initially - if closer to the water's edge at the beginning the chick would never survive as it is only at the end of this incredible cycle that the chick is large enough to live on its own.
We came home this evening and, at bedtime, we all thanked God for His incredible creation. Penguins are fearfully and truly wonderfully made and, to think, we are the crown of His creation!
Typical of a "science" movie, it gave no glory to the Triune God and Creator but, for me, I felt like standing up and giving a Doxology of Praise to Him.
Around the March timeframe every year Penguins get out of the water where they have fed for months and walk for 70 miles to a common location. They all converge to the same place from different spots, at nearly the same time, to the place they were born. The route changes every year as ice formations inhibit their progress.
In a long ceremony a male and female form a monogonous relationship that will last for 9 months and mate. An egg is produced at the onset of winter. The egg is delicately transferred from the female to the male and the female, nearly starving, makes a 70 mile journey back to the ocean to fill her belly.
For the next 4 months, in the dead of Anarctic winter, months wihout sunlight, the male Penguins keep the egg warm and huddle in a constantly moving formation. The egg hatches literally 1-2 days before the females return, belly full, to keep the new Penguin alive.
The male transfers the chick to the female who feeds the chick while the males, who have lost 50% of their body weight, trek 70 miles to the ocean to feed.
This back and forth cycle continues for the next 3-4 months as the ice retreats, the cycle shortens, and eventually the ice has retreated to within a few hundred yards of the birth place. Incidentally, this is the reason why they have to travel so far initially - if closer to the water's edge at the beginning the chick would never survive as it is only at the end of this incredible cycle that the chick is large enough to live on its own.
We came home this evening and, at bedtime, we all thanked God for His incredible creation. Penguins are fearfully and truly wonderfully made and, to think, we are the crown of His creation!
