One morning last school year, I woke and was laying in bed. I was looking out the window and not thinking much but white fuzz. Then I suddenly remembered that I was teaching the chapter on reptiles for that day’s class. I sprang out of bed, filled with jubilation, literally singing, “Galloo-gallay, it’s reptile day!” The sun was at once brighter and the air a little sweeter…and now you have a true glimpse into my unique view of life!

Little did I know then, that there is actually such a wonderful thing as Reptile Awareness Day! It’s true! And it just happens to be celebrated on October 21st.

I know the very word “reptile” sends the creepy-crawlies down some folk’s spines. But honestly, reptiles get a bad rap. I like to remind my biology students that there is no such thing as a bad or evil animal. In the Bible it states that God created all things, all creatures included, according to his purpose. Genesis 1:25 says, “And God made…every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his own kind: and God saw that it was GOOD.” Snakes and crocodiles and big, fat lizards were not created to make you shudder in horror! They are part of a great plan, filling a very special niche in a world that the Lord made to hinge together like pieces in a puzzle.

Snakes and crocodiles and big, fat lizards were not created to make you shudder in horror! They are part of a great plan, filling a very special niche in a world that the Lord made to hinge together like pieces in a puzzle. Click To Tweet

Don’t believe me that these creatures are necessary? One of my science magazines from years back documented a village in China that had numerous snakes in their rice paddies, many of them venomous. The village decided on total extermination—including all types, even those that were harmless—and destroyed all snakes in their area. For the first year things were fine. In the second, the harvest was terribly depleted. In the two years following, the rice harvest was almost non-existent. The people were facing starvation.

Scientists decided to look into the village’s strange plight. What they found was that an unchecked population of mice, rats, and insects was devouring the young plants before they could even produce. Why? Because the snakes, part of God’s natural system of checks and balances, were all gone. In the end, scientists rounded up snakes from other parts of the province and reintroduced them into the area. The rice harvest was saved. That’s a tale to prove that even the scaliest of beings are important.

Not only do reptiles fill an important place in their ecosystems, but many of them are just plain cool. You don’t have to get anywhere near a horny toad from the American southwest to be impressed with the fact that they can shoot blood out of their eyes to scare off something that wants to devour them. (Yes, you read that right.)

What about those adorable, crazy-eyed chameleon lizards? They can flick out their tongues to snatch a bug at a speed 50 times the acceleration due to gravity. What does that even mean? Well, fighter pilots generally black out at only 10 times the acceleration due to gravity! Can you imagine if the little lizard passed out every time his tongue went whizzing out there and snapped back into his head? He would come to wondering if he had even caught his dinner! No, God made the little guy to be a wonder of creation, swiveling eyes and all.

And now for a personal favorite: snakes! I have been fascinated with these creatures since I was small and my dad taught me to catch and hold them. I do frequent snake dissections to show kids how amazingly made these creatures are. (I don’t kill snakes, but come upon plenty of specimens that met their end on the highway.) Every single time I open one, I find something new and amazing. Sometimes it is a sack of eggs waiting to be laid. Other times their stomach shows a food not yet digested—one contained fish scales and bones, another had a smaller snake that it had devoured. The snake I dissected on the day I took the photo below was no exception. Inside it’s stomach was a pile of black feathers and one perfectly preserved clawed foot. Our snake’s final meal had been a blackbird!

If your kids have ever wondered how snakes get places with no hands or feet, have them lay on the floor on their belly. Tell them to tuck their thumbs under their armpits so that their elbows are out like wings. Have them glue their legs together and then wiggle from side to side, using their elbows to help pull them along the ground. It’s hard work, but this is very close to how snakes locomote! Look at the skeleton photo below. (It was a Mother’s Day present. Awww, my guys know me … isn’t that so sweet?!?)

Each of those tiny ribs connects to a long scale on the snake’s underbelly, called a scute. They use their ribs much like your child’s elbows and the wriggling motion to use the scute scales to haul themselves along. They are so good at it that they can climb the bark of a tree or scale a brick wall. Look, Ma, no hands!

These are just the tiny tip of the scaly iceberg of fascinating reptile facts. Why not use this Reptile Awareness Day as a chance to learn something new about one of God’s most maligned groups of creatures? It might just have you singing a new song…