"The more I study nature, the more I am amazed at the Creator." - Louis Pasteur The first animal I started to study was the camel, and the first thing that struck me in studying the creation of the camel was how great God is. I am not an animal lover, but I am a God lover, which is why I have enjoyed studying these animals so much. Although these devotionals teach us lessons to apply to our lives, I hope that above all they will give you a greater love and awe for our awesome Creator. Without God's help, I wouldn't have gotten far in this book. I own a whole book on pandas, and yet, at the beginning, I was stuck after finding one lesson to learn from them! But with much prayer and dependence on God, I came up with seven. I have had to pray many times for God to open my eyes so I can see what there is to learn, so all credit goes to Him. For a time, I stopped writing this book as it seemed too hard and daunting. But when I was studying the story of the 12 spies and Joshua and Caleb for my Bible class, I realized I was just like the 10 spies who were focused on the difficulties instead of being focused on God. Caleb's words helped me to pick up my writing and try again, "Let us go up at once and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it" (Numbers 13:30). And God did help me. Also, the lesson from tigers about strength and courage also helped me to have strength and courage in trusting God to help me! Studying these animals has been just as exciting and thrilling as digging for buried treasure. I have been amazed at some of the lessons there are to learn. My favourite of all my studies is the one about elephants being gardeners of the forest. What a neat picture! I pray that you may find it just as thrilling to read and that you will soak all these lessons in until they become part of you.