Adam called them

“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.” Genesis 2:19

If Adam named every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, how long do you think he was thinking of names? And how many names did he have to create? It makes me smile to know that God gave Adam this privilege. I wonder at what point did Adam run out of names? Obviously, he made it through because in verse 20 it goes on to state that Adam went ahead and named them all.

There is estimated to be anywhere between 2 – 100 million species of animals and plants on the earth today. A more consistent number I have seen is around 2 million. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring (www.wikipedia.com). Each species does not account for the individual members of that family, but the family as a whole. Scientist today have attempted or are still attempting to classify and name all species though they run into difficulties with differences in opinions and redundancies (The Environmental Literacy Council, www.enviroliteracy.org)

Adam was just one man who named every beast and fowl that God created. He had to come up with some crazy stuff and God loved every one of them. What scientist can’t do today, one man did in the beginning of time. We have a hard time naming our pets! When I was young I had 4 dogs and one cat. The cat was never named, three of my dogs were all called Boy and one was called Princess. Can you tell that I had issues with naming my animals?

Maybe I should ask for the mind of Adam when naming my animals. Who knows what I would come up with!

Here is one for you; do you know what an Alpaca is? What about an Ermine? I didn’t make these up. They are real animals. Check out Wikipedia for more.