Among the ancient Aztecs, red dye was collected as a yearly religious tribute. Acquiring this bright colorant required hundreds of subjects to comb the desert in search of its source-the tiny female cochineal beetle. Making just a pound of this rare extract required the harvesting of about 70,000 of these insects!
After the arrival of Cortez in the1500s, Spaniards traded for the dried remains of the cochineal beetle, whose red dye created a brilliant color that no one could duplicate by any other source. Soon after, Europeans used it for coloring fabrics. In the years that followed, Michelangelo used it in paintings and the British and Canadians for their red coats.
Today, less expensive synthetic dyes have mostly replaced this insect dye, but it is still used as a natural FDA-approved coloring for food, drugs, and cosmetics. Strange as it may sound, some brands of fruit juice use this beetle as colorant. It's also fascinating to note that Spanish traders never told the Europeans of the dyes origin. And because the little beetles looked so much like seeds, they were traded as grain.
While the dye from this little beetle is used in myriad applications, just be sure that you only let it come in contact with that which you desired dyed a deep crimson red, because there's not much hope that you'll ever get the stain out should you inadvertently spill or apply it!
That said, did you know that the Bible teaches you CAN wash red stains ... with blood no less! ... and get pure white? "Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD, 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, shall be as wool'" (saiah 1: 18).
"These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14).
Have you ever heard of the Poison Garden?
The Alnwick Garden [located in Alnwick, UK] plays host to the small but deadly Poison Garden—filled exclusively with around 100 toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants. The boundaries of the Poison Garden are kept behind black iron gates, only open on guided tours.
Visitors are strictly prohibited from smelling, touching, or tasting any plants.
Entry to The Poison Garden is included with your day ticket but please note tours are subject to availability.
Wait, what?! A garden filled with nothing but poisonous plants?!
A combination of dark, ivy-covered tunnels and flame-shaped beds creates an educational garden full of interest and intrigue, where the most dangerous plants are kept within giant cages. ... The Poison Garden is home to around 100 species of dangerous, toxic and harmful plants, each of which has the potential to severely injure you! These are some of the most dangerous to look (but not touch) out for on your tour:
Laburnum
Atropa Belladonna
Helleborus Odorus
Monkshood
Ricinus communis
Giant Hogweed
Opium Poppy
Gympie- Gympie
… and hundreds more!
Aparently, though quite deadly, these poisonous plants can be quite beautiful and alluring ...
This world is a veritable poison garden filled with all manner of temptations and worldly pursuits that can quite literally kill us!
God calls us to wander through this Poison Garden circumspectly, careful to not "touch" the poison all around us.
Long story short, enter the Poison Garden careful to obey all the warning signs!
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23, ESV).
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12, ESV).
"Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death" (James 1:15, ESV).
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:17, ESV).
Michel Lotito had an unusual appetite, diagnosed from an early age with Pica, a rare phsycological disorder, causing him to "compulsively swallow non-food items," everything from metal and wood to plastics and rubber.
Over the course of his life it has been reported that he consumed 11 bicycles, 7 shopping carts, 1 steel safe, 1 cash register, 1 washing machine, 1 television, and hundreds of meters of steel chains, turning his penchant for curious consumption into a lucrative entertainment career.
Lotito admitted that eating his first bicycle was not easy. "I started with the metal parts, and only after that came the rubber tires," Lotito recalled. "The tires were really difficult to eat. Metal has no taste, but rubber is very unpleasant."
However, these meals were nothing compared to his largest meal—a Cessna airplane. Yes, Lotito, over the span of a few years, is said to have consumed an entire airplane made of tons of aluminum, steel, and rubber.
Turns out, the French entertainer had a superhuman digestive system which was incredibly resilient enough to endure consuming just about anything.
After examining his stomach, he was told by doctors he was capable of consuming 2 lbs (907 grams) of metal per day due to his extra thick stomach lining and intestines.
Lotito may have been able to eat practically anything, but he still had to take care of himself in the process. Therefore, he had quite a useful technique to minimise any internal damage.
In 1980, a newspaper reported: 'Lotito must be very careful. He lubricates his system with mineral oil, for one thing. He also stretches the meal over several days. He chops all the metal into pellets, and washes them down with copious amounts of drinking water.'
Lotito's unusual appetite, though his body was uniquely suited to "endure" it, was neither healthy nor genuinely gratifying. Nothing in those nuts and bolts and tires could actually nourish or satisfy his body's physical needs. And no amount of feeding the desires of his mental disorder could satisfy the emptiness of his spirit. Like Lotito, we are self-deceived if we think otherwise.
The Bible teaches about the dangers of excessive or unnatural desires. Human cravings, when not aligned with God's will, can lead to emptiness, dissatisfaction, or even destruction. Just as eating metal is harmful to the body, indulging in desires outside of God's design are damaging to the soul.
“Each one is tempted when, by this own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death" (James 1:14-15).
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Ephesians 2:1-3, ESV).
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16, ESV).