Vacation!!

Well, I am sitting here in our hotel room in Boston, Massachusetts!! :) We left Sunday after church and drove for about 11 hours, but time-wise it was more like 12 because of the time change. We spent Sunday night in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then continued on to Niagara Falls. We did the "Journey Behind the Falls" at Niagara Falls where you actually go right next to the Horseshoe Falls (Canadian Falls). It was so neat to be right next to all that water pouring over the edge!! According to the facts, 34 million gallons of water are poured over the falls every minute. Wow!!! That's a lot of water!!!

We also did "Maid of the Mist", the boat that takes you right up next to the Canadian Falls. We also did the new attraction there called "Niagara's Fury". None of us were very impressed with that though--it was just a simulation-type thing, not nearly as cool as the real thing. Let's see, that was Monday and then we drove on to Boston. We arrived late again, so we had two late nights in a row, but it's been good! Today we went whale watching; it was great!! We had several sightings of the same mom and calf humpback whales. It was really neat to be that close to wild whales! Then later we went to visit the USS Constitution and Bunker Hill Monument. The USS Constitution was really neat--lots of history! Bunker Hill was okay, we were all already tired and we had to climb 294 steps!! It was a really good work-out!

Currently we are lounging in our hotel room, just enjoying some relaxation time. I was going to upload some pictures but they are taking too long and I'm impatient! :) I will try again some other time!

What is the purpose??

Earwigs. Just the name of the things creeps me out. Living in the basement of my house, I have had several run-ins with these creepy crawlers. I recently read a friend's blog that discussed how they had to "bomb" their house because of all the earwigs. I shudder just to think about that many earwigs in my house. Pondering these things, I started to tell myself that they were the worst of all of God's creation. But I stopped myself. To back up just a bit, I am scared of and hate plenty of different insects. Bees, for one. Spiders, for another. And earwigs. You will almost (almost I said) find me running from a room screaming if there is a spider or earwig present.

So, I detest the little creatures just as much as the next person. But does that give me a right to say they are the worst of all of God's creation? After all, he created everything for a purpose. For those of us who hate spiders, we remind ourselves constantly that when they are outside they do good because they catch and eat small insects. Bats keep the mosquito population down, and bees pollinate flowers. Does that make me like any of those things more? Heck no. But it does put my thinking into perspective. So, how come we never hear what good earwigs do? Personally, I think it is because there is not a single person on this earth (okay, except maybe scientists) who actually want to find some good in the things.

But, nevertheless, I worked up my courage (haha) to google the purpose of earwigs on this earth, half expecting to get no results. To my dismay, there was an answer. Sigh. Turns out we can't get rid of all the earwigs on the planet because they do serve a purpose. According to John A. Jackman, an extension survey entomologist at the Texas Agricultural Extension Service at Texas A&M University, earwigs feed "on both dead and living insects as well as mosses, lichens, algae, fungi and occasionally some growing plants." So, see, they do have a purpose in this world. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, this article also mentioned that earwigs do NOT reproduce indoors. Yay!

Anyways, I thought it was interesting that we so often fail to realize how every creature, plant, animal, and person has a purpose in this world set forth by God alone. If he even has a purpose for the earwigs that everyone hates, how much more of a purpose do you think he has for you and me?