How long?

Jimmy lived in the country away from the city. Near his home, there was a beautiful lake surrounded by a meadow, some woods and fields. Jimmy and his friend Willie loved to go down to the lake to watch all the animals, birds and fish. There were cardinals, crows, finches, robins and many other beautiful birds. Other creatures included butterflies, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and now and then he would see a fox.

One day as Jimmy and Willie were sitting by the lake watching all the action around them, they began to wonder how long it would take to create these creatures. For example, the butterflies are very delicate, but have beautiful colors. Wouldn’t you think that it would take a long time to paint the beautiful colors on such a creature. And what about a caterpillar? With all the legs on a caterpillar, it would surely take a long time to make one of these crawly creatures.

Willie did not know the answer, but his uncle Fred always came down to the lake to fish.

“Why don’t we ask him”, Willie said.

So the two boys got on their bikes and rode down to the edge of the lake where Uncle Fred was fishing.

“Do you know how long it takes to make some of these creatures?” they asked Uncle Fred.

Uncle Fred was quiet for a few minutes, then told them that these creatures are made by God in the time it takes for one of you to blink your eye. That is not much time is it? The boys were impressed!

“But”, Uncle Fred said, “There is one creature that takes a long time for God to make”.

“Do you know what animal that is?” asked Uncle Fred.

The boys thought about it for awhile and suggested a bird, a whale, a horse, but they were all wrong.

Finally Uncle Fred told them that it was the Dog! It takes God eight hours to make a dog. The reason it takes so long is that God spends 7 hours and 59 minutes just to make the nose. After that God can quickly finish the job in less than a minute.

(Thomas J. Miranda)

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Thomas J. Miranda, is a native of Hawaii (born in Ewa, Oahu on a sugar plantation, grown up in Honolulu, lived there until a year after the Pearl Harbor bombing, moved to California) has been active in the field of Polymer Chemistry and Coatings Technology for over forty years. He is the author of "Growing up in Hawaii" and has published over 50 papers, book chapters and the author of 13 United States Patents. It's possible to buy his books (for example) hereand here.