Man, Woman, Pollen and Hummingbirds

National Geographic December 2009 features the wonder of how seeds of many shapes and sizes pollinate. Writer Rob Dunn first makes the illustration “As humans we take many things for granted. One is surely the ability to walk, crawl, or even, after a little too much to drink, drag ourselves over to a lovely member of the opposite sex.”

His purpose was to point out that “plants have no such luxury.” They need to be very near each other, or have very specific paths in order to reproduce.

Human beings can find each other over millions of miles, through many pathways, and have no particular physical, mental, or emotional requirements in order to connect. (including through the internet)

Yet, the message I gathered from this article and what anyone can glean from it is that “wow, what a plan.”
You may consider the event of plant propagation to be a mundane chance event, as this author did. Moss needed water to reproduce. “Most of the earth was brown” said the author. After that, moss hit a dry patch, a dry spell, and wham! Plants evolved to take on the many thousands of shapes, sizes, properties and purposes. They became. They “began” to produce billions of individual grains.

Human beings came along, (out of the water) and developed a purpose; reproduction. Man “became” a host of different colors, with different features, different hair types and skin types, with different languages and cultures. (evolution). They formed a need to reproduce their own kind.

Fat chance? Coincidence? Or Intelligent design?

The human being can crawl, scoot, drag, walk, run, skip, jump or lunge itself towards its desired target. His eyes can make out the objective as something reasonably capable of connecting with him/herself. He/she can make an informed decision to travel hundreds of miles, or two blocks, or across his/her office to connect with that individual. He/she can make a deliberate, knowledgeable determination about the person (though that may be questionable in the average teenager), based on appearance, sexual appeal, attitude, manner and body language. He/she can then further make decisions about approaching the individual, progressing a relationship, or sealing it. The object of their desire may be tall, short, thin, squat, dark, light-colored, with round eyes or narrow, with thin hair or thick, etc. The result of the combination of the two will be a combination of the two.
However, he or she, cannot combine with another species; such as with a monkey or a bird.
God’s plan.

The lowly seed, in remarkable sizes and shapes, must connect with its mate through specific means: wind, water or carrier. Yet, they are connected from the beginning, from their creation, and cannot connect with any other kind; size or shape, and cannot combine with any other type to get a desirable result. There is the exception, however, through man’s meddling to create a hybrid. Hybrid’s are found to be weaker.

Take a look through the eyes and magnification of photographer Martin Oeggerti in this Nat’l Geo. edition. The hues, forms, sizes and designs of pollen grains anywhere from the minute forget-me-not flower, up to the size of a pumpkin seed-. Pollen grains are diverse as the stars in the sky, as the hairs on our heads. Their forms and function range from the protein rich clover pollen that feeds bees (a crucial connection to fruit and other food production), the spines on common yellow mallow that help it cling to bird feathers, to bromeliad grains that allow the shrinkage and swelling of its ridges to hold water and dry without breaking. One species of flower is exactly matched to a specific hummingbird. One cannot exist without the other. The flower produces larger than usual amounts of nectar, and its pollen is distributed by the hummingbird. “Evolved to fit its environment” , says Darwin, “adapted to its needs.” This remarkable diversification is just more testament in my mind, to a thoughtful creator.

Take a look at your average neighbor, or even a family member. How long are his/her fingers? How varied are the colors or his/her hair strands? How narrow or wide is his/her nose? How even is his/her skin tone? What shape is his/her ankle? How do these features differ from other members of your family, or of your neighbor’s family? I’ll bet that some are able to cling or stick, some are able to fly and release, some are able to shrink or swell, or do or don’t break easily - traits that were born in them. What is he/she able to do, that no-one else is able to do? What decisions does he/she make that no plant or animal is able to make?

I believe intelligent design begat intelligent design- as evidence of a creator. The random splitting of a cell, and its subsequently random multiplication has no power to choose, to direct or manage.


My intelligent designer has all these abilities, and continues to manage all of life.


April Boyer © 2010

*How Plants Mate Dec. 2009 National Geographic.


(An unrelated marvel: the Black Chinned hummingbird chooses to nest in communities, in the close proximity to a Cooper’s Hawk nest. It is believed the tiny neighbors use the Hawk as their own personal alarm system and protection agent.)