History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new. Sometimes people say, “Here is something new!” But actually it is old; nothing is ever truly new. [Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 (NLT)]

Paleontologists in Argentina recently discovered fossils of a new species of dinosaur called the titanosaur. From the size of its bones, it’s estimated to have been 65-feet high and more than 130-feet-long; it probably weighed 155,000 pounds. Technically, Solomon was right: ”Nothing under the sun is truly new.” There is, however, a great deal in this world that is new to us! It may exist but we haven’t yet seen it.

One would think that by now there’s not much left to discover. It’s not just fossils that are unearthed; more than 10,000 new species are found every year! In fact, scientists believe that about 85% of land animals and 90% of sea animals have yet to be discovered and identified. In late June, the California Academy of Sciences announced the discovery of a new species of elephant shrew; it looks like a mouse but is genetically related to the elephant! That’s just from the zoologists; the news from the world of the botanists and the astronomers is similar.

From a creature that weighed 77 tons and could easily look into the window of a six-story building to the recent discovery of a frog the size of a pea when full grown, the variety of God’s creation is beyond belief. Why, when a few moths would probably do, are there more than 150,000 different kinds? Why didn’t God stop at a thousand birds instead of the 10,000 he made? Personally, I could have done with a few less than the 950,000 species of insects He gave us!

The diversity and richness of His creation confirm that we have an awesome God. He is unrestricted and certainly unrestrained. A God of vision and creativity, He is extravagant beyond belief. He has given us gifts so numerous that we can’t even find them all, let alone count them. The most precious (and most extravagant) gift of all, however, was His son and our salvation!

Thank you, God, for lavishing us with your many gifts, both large and small.

God spoke: “Swarm, Ocean, with fish and all sea life! Birds, fly through the sky over Earth!” God created the huge whales, all the swarm of life in the waters, and every kind and species of flying birds. God saw that it was good. … God spoke: “Earth, generate life! Every sort and kind: cattle and reptiles and wild animals – all kinds.” And there it was: wild animals of every kind, cattle of all kinds, every sort of reptile and bug. God saw that it was good. [Genesis 1:20-21,24-25 (MSG)]