The Amazing Starfish

Bob Devine

Did you know that…

Not all STARFISH have five arms? Some only have three, others six or seven, some twenty, and a few up to fifty arms!

STARFISH have thousands of tiny, sharp spines covering them from the tip of one arm to the tip of the others? That is why starfish belong to a group of sea creatures called echinoderms. Echino means “spiny,” and derm means “skin.” These spines protect starfish from tiny sea creatures that try to attach themselves to them and feed off their strength.

A STARFISH’S mouth is on the bottom of its body, right in the center?

STARFISH have very small feet called tube feet? Each tube foot has a tiny suction cup at its tip. Starfish use these suction cups to walk and also to pump in oxygen—so starfish actually breathe through their feet!

STARFISH do not have eyes? Instead, at the end of each starfish arm are many cells that are very sensitive to light. As a starfish travels slowly through the water, these special cells and the sensitive tube feet help the starfish find food.

STARFISH eat oysters? When an oyster senses that a starfish is near, it will quickly close its shell with a snap! But the starfish wraps its arms around the shell and uses the suction cups on its tube feet to pry the oyster’s shell open just a crack.

A STARFISH actually pulls its stomach out through its mouth to eat? Because the oyster’s shell only opens as wide as a piece of cardboard, the starfish must slip its stomach into the shell and eat the oyster while it is still in its closed shell.

When a STARFISH loses its arms in an accident, it will grow new ones? One kind of starfish can grow an entire body from a piece of its arm one-half inch long!

WOW!

Starfish are pretty amazing creatures! They were designed to see, walk, breathe, eat, protect themselves, and heal themselves when they are hurt, all in a special way that fits their specific underwater environment. God is the Master Designer behind starfish, all sea creatures, land creatures, and yes, humans! God is your Designer and Creator. He made you with the ability to know him and love him. Starfish can do lots of cool things, but they can’t learn about God and love him like you can.

You are an amazing creature. Just think of all the cool things God has designed you to do: think, jump, learn, sing, love, run, play, laugh, help others… and there are probably many more things you can do and special talents that you have. But nobody is perfect; all humans do things that are wrong. Can you think of some things that you have done that were wrong? Maybe you were mean to someone at school or told a lie to your parents. God calls those wrong things sin.

Everyone who sins must be punished. But God loves us and does not want us to sin. He wants us to be like him—loving, kind, and good. And he designed a way to save us from our sins and to help us become more like him. God sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to be a human, just like us, except Jesus never sinned. Even so, he chose to die so that he could pay the death penalty for our sins. Three days after he died, God raised him back to life again! Isn’t God amazing?

Do you want to have a clean, new life? Then just believe in what Jesus did for you. Tell God that you are sorry for your sins and thank him for sending Jesus to save you. When you trust in Jesus and believe that he died for you, God will begin working in you every day, helping you to become more like him and to avoid doing wrong things. If you want to begin this new life with God, talk to him and say something like this:

Dear God, I am sorry for the bad things I do. Thank you for sending your Son Jesus to pay the penalty for my sins. I believe that he died for me and rose again so that I could go to heaven. Please change my heart and make me more like Jesus. Amen.

© 2002 - 2007 Good News Publishers. Used by permission.
Translated by permission of Good News Publishers
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