Scientists in their laboratories have discovered that the highly intelligent octopus is able to figure out mazes and puzzles.
This invertebrate has so many other not-by-accident Creator-given abilities that even without adequate return neuropaths from its eight tentacles back to its brain (its brain doesn't process all the infor-mation gathered by its arms) it still is able to send instructions to the tentacles due to its excellent eyesight as it watches carefully what its tentacles are doing! But perhaps the most amazing of its gifts is its incredible abilities as one of the top "escape artists" of the ocean.
The octopus can hide in an instant—in plain sight! Using specialized muscles and a network of pigment cells God created within its skin, this not-so-lowly mollusk can almost instantaneously match the colors, patterns, and even textures of its surroundings. Its predators such as sharks, eels, and dolphins swim past with-out even noticing it! It's not by accident that, when needed, the octopus can change its mantle so it can take on the appearance of seaweed, or the rough, bumpy texture of a rock, or even accurately mimic other, more dangerous animals such as lionfish, sea snakes and eels! Only a compassionate Designer could devise such escape plans, and give the octopus the instinct and/or wisdom to know when it is needed.
But that isn't all. Perhaps everyone has heard of the disorienting inky-black substance that an octopus releases when cornered by an enemy. That cloud of "ink" not only includes a secretion that dulls a predator's sense of smell, making the octopus harder to track, but the inky blob actually looks like the octopus—so the enemy attacks it, while the octopus itself quickly swims away. But the octopus needs another not-by accident ability at that moment, since an octopus isn't normal-ly a fast swimmer. So the octopus has been enabled to take in water and eject it forcibly through a funnel as its muscular mantle contracts. Then it rapidly swims out and away from danger. It's jet propulsion provided by the Creator long before it was used by man! And why not add the periscope to their ability? Some octo-puses, when in danger, swim through sand and every now and then push one eye up out of the sand to have a look around to see if the coast is clear. This creature had periscope ability long before submarines were invented!
However, even with all their defense mechanisms, sometimes an enemy will grab a tentacle of the octopus and refuse to let go. Sensing this, the octopus is pro-grammed, like the starfish, to be able to release the imprisoned tentacle into the grasp of its enemy. Then the octopus moves away with just seven arms, and the predator is left with a 240 suction-cup tentacle still moving, still crawling all over it for some time. Later, in God's design of the octopus, regeneration occurs, the lost limb is replaced, and the octopus goes on with its eight tentacles, surviving intelligently under its kind Creator's not-by-accident care. We humans also, as we draw on our Creator's assuring Presence and promises, are enabled to survive many times when it would seem life for us on this earth is filled only with preda-tors. God is near and comes through for us, too.
"NOT BY ACCIDENT" (c) Juanita Kretschmar is used by permission and was first published in the book "Not By Accident 2" page 31
Picture originally found here
