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October 2000

Kids’ Page
 

A day at the wetlands park

 

by Mrs. Anne Groenenboom
 

“Come on Chris, breakfast will be ready soon.” Chris opened one eye sleepily and wondered why it was Dad calling him and not Mum.

“Mum isn’t well, so I’m staying home. Joel kept her awake all night and she has a bad headache,” Dad explained.

Chris dressed quickly and hurried to the kitchen, where Amy and Carla were setting the table. His little brother, Joel, the cause of Mum’s disturbed sleep, was in his high chair, chewing a piece of toast. His cereal bowl was empty and now he had Vegemite smeared all over his face. He didn’t look as if there was much wrong with him today.

“What about Mum’s breakfast?” Amy asked, but Dad shook his head. “She’s sound asleep, so we’ll just leave her for now. She can have something when she wakes up.” Dad continued, “After Joel has a sleep and we’ve done some jobs, we’ll go somewhere special.” Dad told them. “Do you have any good ideas about where to go?”

“McDonalds!” Carla squealed gleefully, clapping her hands.

“Not this time, Carla. It’s too nice a day to spend inside.” Dad answered.

“We could go down to that new wetlands park, Dad,” Chris suggested.
“That sounds great, Chris. We can take a picnic lunch, but first of all, let’s get the jobs done.” Dad reminded them.

Soon Joel settled down to sleep and the girls started getting the food ready while Chris helped Dad pack everything they needed into the car. He was rather surprised when he saw Dad put a garden stake and hammer in the car, along with Joel’s playpen and a picnic rug.

Joel didn’t sleep for long and Dad picked him up before he woke Mum. Amy crept into Mum’s room but she was still sound asleep, so she made a sandwich, covered it with gladwrap, then put it in the fridge. Next, she wrote a note which said,

“Dear Mum, we hope your headache is better now. There is a sandwich for you in the fridge. Have a good rest. Love from us all.”

She propped the note up against the clock radio, where Mum was sure to see it.

When they arrived at the new park, they noticed that lots of trees had been planted. They were glad to see that there was a large, newly mown area, with picnic tables here and there. Two plovers squawked indignantly as the children climbed out of the car. Amy giggled as she watched them skittering off on their thin, straight legs. “They look as if they’re walking on high heels, just like Carla when she’s wearing Mum’s old shoes!”

“God gave them long legs so they could wade about, looking for their food,” Chris commented. ”Lots of water birds have long legs.”

“That’s right, Chris. Plovers don’t always live near water, but they still need to wade through mud at times.” Dad agreed as he hammered the stake into the ground and put Joel’s playpen on the picnic blanket beside it. He tied the playpen to the stake.

“There. That should stop you rattling the playpen so hard that you’ll soon be off the blanket and on the wet grass!” Dad told Joel as he put him into the playpen, with some of his favourite toys.

The children watched some birds wading at the water’s edge. They had long pointed and curved beaks and Dad said they were ibis. He told them the birds’ beaks were shaped that way to help them find their food in the water and the mud. Amy noticed another bird, quite tall, with a long beak, not far away.

“That’s a heron. Its long beak is also for finding food in water.” Dad told them.

“Did God give it long legs for walking in water, too?” Carla asked and Dad nodded.

“Look, Carla, there are some ducks over there,” Amy pointed. ”Would you like to feed them?” Carla nodded excitedly, so Amy and Chris went with her to feed the ducks, while Dad gave Joel his bottle. They stood watching some black swans gliding lazily in the lagoon, while the ducks hovered around them, hoping for more crusts.

When Joel was in his playpen again, the rest of the family ate their lunch. After everything was packed safely into the car, Dad put Joel into the backpack seat so they could all go for a walk along a specially made walking trail that wound its way in and out of the swampy areas and they saw honeyeaters, wrens and other small birds, flitting about in the bushes.

“Lots of birds live close to the water,” Dad told them. “Next time we come down here, we’ll bring our bird book and see if we can find out the names of all the birds we see. There should be lots more, once the trees grow and the area is established.”

“How do birds know where to live?” Carla asked and Chris explained to her that God had given each creature a special instinct to know what was right for it. Dad showed them a small pool of water with lots of tadpoles swimming about. There were other small creatures in the water, too.

“These are baby frogs, Carla,” Dad explained. “The frogs lay their eggs in the water, because the food needed for the tadpoles is also in the water. He pointed to some tiny wriggly creatures near the surface of the pool. ”Those are mosquito babies,” he said and Carla watched as the tadpoles dashed after them and gobbled them up.

“Dad, may we take some tadpoles home to watch them turn into frogs? Carla would love that, wouldn’t you, Carla?” Chris asked and his little sister nodded eagerly.

“I’m not sure we’re allowed to take tadpoles from a nature reserve, Chris, but we can probably find some in the creek down the hill behind our house,” Dad replied. “You’ll have to make sure that you return the frogs to the creek, when they’re fully grown.”

When they arrived home, everyone was pleased that Mum was feeling much better. As Mum gave Joel a big cuddle, he gave her a beaming smile and she could see two new teeth in the top of his mouth.

“So that’s what made you so grizzly last night!” Mum said. The girls told her all the interesting things they had seen at the wetlands area while Chris hurried off to see if he could find some tadpoles for Carla. He soon came back carrying a large ice cream tub with several tadpoles in it.

“There are a few other creatures in there too,” he told the girls. “Maybe there are even some mosquito wrigglers in there, to feed the tadpoles.”

Amy and Carla examined the contents of the tub carefully and sure enough, they could see the mosquito babies wriggling around in the water, along with a water beetle and a couple of other strange-looking creatures.

“If we put the tadpoles in the old fish tank on the table on the veranda, then the mosquitoes might lay some more eggs in the water and we won’t have to feed them,” Dad suggested.

“I don’t like the idea of encouraging mosquitoes, “ Mum remarked. “We have enough trouble with them as it is.”

“Well, we’ll keep the tadpoles in the kitchen and we can give them some fish food,” Dad replied.

“Dad, you know how you always say that God has made every creature to do a special task... well what kind of special task would mosquitoes have?” Amy asked. “I don’t think they’re much help at all!”

“You’re probably right, Amy,” Dad replied.” When God created everything it was very good, but when sin came into the world, everything changed and lots of creatures became enemies of people and of each other. I think that’s probably what happened with mosquitoes.”

“Just think of all the creatures that prey on each other!” Mum commented. “That didn’t happen in the beginning, because God made all living creatures to eat plants.”

Amy nodded thoughtfully. She knew exactly what Mum meant.

“Why don’t we read that passage in the Bible that tells us about the new heavens and the new earth?” Amy asked, so Dad read Isaiah 65:17-25 to the children and explained what it meant.
 

SOME THING TO DO:

Read this passage with your family and discuss its meaning. Think about all the creatures that are at enmity with each other and how people are often at enmity with each other, all because of sin. Think what will be different when Jesus comes back.

If you live an area where mosquitoes are a problem, look for outdoor containers that have been filled with rainwater, or saucers under outdoor plants. These will often have mosquito “wrigglers” in them. It’s a good idea to empty them regularly.

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