I recall years ago hearing about the wonders of tiny wings, too small, impossibly so, to carry the weight of a bulbous body. The bumblebee hasn't a clue about aerodynamics, nor does it give a whit regarding body composition or weight distribution. The bumblebee flies, wings lifting it into the air and wings lowering it too, in accordance with the laws that apply to winged things designed by an Invisible Hand.
Short and stubby, the bumblebee doesn't look very flight-worthy. Indeed, in the 1930s, French entomologist August Magnan even noted that the insect's flight is actually impossible, a notion that has stuck in popular consciousness since then.
Now, you don't need to be a scientist to raise an eyebrow at this assertion, but it sure is easier to explain the bumblebee's physics-defying aerodynamics if you're Michael Dickinson, a professor of biology and insect flight expert at the University of Washington.
"The whole question of how these little wings generate enough force to keep the insect in the air is resolved," Dickinson told Life's Little Mysteries. "There are details remaining, but it's not an enigma anymore."
It's not an enigma anymore ... this sentence entertains me to no end. So the fact that a fella studied how the bumblebee moves air with its wings to defy gravity for ground to air lift off, somehow resolves the issue of tiny almost see through wings, being able to lift a hefty body seemingly too heavy to bare up, erases what seems impossible, even though, There are details remaining.
There is an insult to our intelligence hidden in plain sight, dear reader, within the "assertions" and statements above, and it is this: Now, you don't need to be a scientist to raise an eyebrow at this assertion. The suggestion is that ignorant little old unscientific me and you, as simple minded as we are, even we, would find August Magnan's "notion" somewhat ridiculous, regarding the impossible made possible; in other words, these cute and cuddly looking bees fly and it is a delightful wonder to watch what we cannot explain, given their clunky looking design! Do you deem August Magnan's observations and lack of advanced scientific knowledge mockable, laughable, absurd, and even a little ridiculous?
It is the poverty stricken, the poor in spirit, the rich dead man walking, that cannot stomach the glorious creations arrayed in panoramic view. Go outside and scan left to right, right to left, up then down and back again, and feast your eyes on what you have not made, cannot make, cannot even conceive of concocting. The bumblebee "scientists" study what they see, figure out how things work, but they cannot ever do what has been done. No matter the explanations, they aren't capable of making sweet sturdy yellow and black bees, now are they dear reader? There are details remaining ...
The mystery of faith is this: believing! It is that simple. Believing that whatever has breath, has life, and it is impossible to explain. Manufacturing humans in test tubes because scientists have figured out that sperm and egg make a baby, does not make them life givers, it makes them mimics. We are not evolved from monkeys, but scientists are much involved in monkey business that they ought not tamper with. It is one thing to observe and learn, and yet another, to take extreme liberties in attempts to mirror God, replacing his beneficence with malignancy, willfully pretending that enigmas do not exist because man can explain the how to, but cannot replicate the entirety of a creature; intangible intricacies make it impossible for man to be capable of what only God can design and construct.
Now, let us look at you, and then at me, shall we?
What is beyond your comprehension that makes you weep in wonder? I marvel many times a day, shaking my head at the unexplainable. The magnolia just outside my front room window is ready to burst into bloom, and for the life of me, I cannot tell you why this makes me weepy, except for its extreme beauty. It is beautiful to me in a thousand budding with life ways, and each year I am reminded that this is but one mystery for me to savour.
Life, dear reader, life is inexplainable, and this believer raises an eyebrow at those that try to rationalize what they see so that the mystery is nullified, as if this is possible! Like the heavy bodied teeny tiny winged flying bumblebee, we humans do and say astounding things, some wonderful, some so hateful as to make the soul shrivel and shrink, and yet it is life, the animation of our bodies via the soul within, that gives us the ability to do anything at all, and it is God and God alone, that we can thank for what we can do, impossible as some things seem.
God is the wind beneath the wings of the bumblebee, and he is the strength in your bones, and don't you forget it.