The story of creation is very explicit. God created all things, each with its own purpose. We must trust in this and appreciate the natural order of things even if it seems so wrong sometimes. It’s the classic saying, "Man proposes but God disposes."
On the order of things, the universe as "made up of individuals (subsequently) occurring in fixed natural kinds (species). Each individual has its built-on specific pattern of development and grows toward proper self-realization as a specimen of its type. Growth, purpose and direction are thus built into nature."
Why do some butterfly species die after only 21 days flying about? They live seven days as an egg eating calamansi, camote or kangkong leaves, then became larvae, that itchy caterpillar, for seven days also feeding on food plants, then as pupas where they metamorphosize sleeping beauties for at most seven days, then bursting out. Seemingly aware that they have a limited time to live, these butterflies look for a mate – lay eggs again and the cycle is repeated just before dropping dead on the ground. Why do they exist? Little as I know about them, they make me happy.
Did you ever observe that teeny-weeny spider weaving its web behind your bookshelf? These spiders always get the raw end of the deal. Because of their hideous exterior and their propensity to creep around dark places, these spiders suffer death due to their unpleasant reputation of dirt, dust, eeriness and poison. Thanks to the movie Spider-man, my godson bought a book on these tiny creatures. It read that only 30 of the 40,000 species produce venom lethal to man and these poisonous ones avoid human contact, attacking only when they feel threatened. Yet, by either habitat destruction or the use of pesticides, we kill these small arthropods disallowing them to take their natural course. Like all the species in this world, spiders are here for a specific purpose. First, they are the best source of silk. Scientist have long studied the components of spider silk in the hope that they can mass-produce silk of superb quality. Second, spiders are aggressive predators of insects. This makes them an efficient biological pest control agent in agriculture. So yes, even spiders have their own role in maintaining the equilibrium of things.
And how about those bees? My Encarta says, "They are flower-feeding insects... dependent on pollen as a protein source and on flower nectar or oils as an energy source." It is the adult females that collect pollen to feed their larvae. As they do, these females unavoidably lose pollen in transferring from one flower to another, becoming agents of pollination important to the flowers. Hurray for the law of nature! The bees, because they are flower-feeding insects, help the flowers by spilling some of their "stolen" pollen in the reproductive structures of other flowers. This interdependence is referred to as "mutualism, an association between unlike organisms that is beneficial to both parties." Talk about equilibrium.