Bathtub Float Toy?
StoryNature Nugget★★★★The first time I saw Surinam toads in an aquarium, I didn’t think they were real. They looked like inflated brown plastic toys clinging together in the underwater weeds. As I checked out their flat bodies, triangular heads, and tiny eyes, I noticed one of their legs twitch. Then I realized that they were real!
Underwater dwellers, Surinam toads have no tongues to dart at passing prey. Instead, they feel along the muddy bottoms of ponds and rivers with their sensitive star-shaped feelers. These are located at the end of each toe of their front feet. When they sense a small creature, they suck it into their mouth and eat it.
After the female lays her eggs, the male fertilizes them, then presses them onto her spongy back. The mother’s skin soon grows around the eggs. There she shelters and protects them from lurking predators for about 80 days, until they emerge as completely developed little froglets.
David said about God, “For you are my refuge, a high tower where my enemies can never reach me” (TLB). Like the Surinam mother protects her eggs, God wants to keep you physically safe and also guard you against Satan’s temptations. So He sends angels to help you and the Holy Spirit to impress and warn you. Don’t you want to accept His refuge?
TALK BACK: God has promised to protect you if you’re willing. What methods does He use to do this?
Elaine Egbert, Nature in a Nutshell: Daily Devotions for Juniors (Review and Herald, 2003), p. 363
The point
Surinam toads look like plastic toys but are real, and the mother's unique way of carrying her eggs on her back illustrates God's protective refuge for His children.