The Sum Total

Graptemys geographica • Map Turtle

Growing up on the banks of beautiful Lake Maxinkuckee and spending my boyhood days on the Tippecanoe and Wabash River gave me ample opportunity to study and appreciate these amazing reptiles.  Map turtles have been classified by scientists in the genus Graptemys.  You did pay attention in biology and know how that works, didn't you?  From the top down it would be–Kindom:  Anamalia; Phylum:  Chordata; Class:  Reptilia; Subclass:  Anapsida; Order:  Testudines; Suborder:  Crptodira; Superfamily:  Testudinoidea; Family:  Emydidae; Subfamily:  Deirochelyinae; Genus:  Graptemys.  The review was as much for my benefit as yours, you can be sure.

G. pulchra • Alabama Map Turtle

This distinctive turtle genus ranges through a wide variety of habitats from Florida to Texas, and north to the Dakotas and Quebec.  Unique features set them apart from other semi-aquatic turtles found in the same area.  A diverse group of turtles, with many beautifully marked species, each type possessing distinctive habits, diets and environmental preferences, they are fascinating to study.  They inhabited Grassy Lake, where we maintained a winter vacation house and most of the lakes and waterways I visited in Illinois, Michigan, and Minnesota.


Most Map turtles have a well-defined keel running down the middle of the upper shell (carapace).  It gets that name from a close resemblance to the keel of a boat if you hold the turtle upside down, which is not advised as they can't breathe in that position.  Scientists, of course, have to identify everything with difficult words that are usually hard to pronounce and almost impossible to remember correct spellings.  I often think they do that so they can feel superior to the rest of us, a means to justify their existence and make them seem more important.  Or, I could just be a bit prejudiced against scientists.

Graptemys barbouri • Barbour's Map Turtle

Those little sections on the upper and lower shell (carapace and plastron) are called scutes.  The most notable difference between Map turtles and other turtles is the distinctive thin lines covering the skin and scutes, making it appear as if it were a contour or road map.  For those of you who are not keeping up, that would explain the name.  Each species has unique markings.  Strangely, despite the claims of scientists that evolution is a valid theory, a female Barbour's map turtle will lay eggs that hatch little Barbour's map turtles, and have done so for centuries, suggesting that such claims lack validity.  Could it be possible!


Boy and girl Map turtles are relatively easy to tell apart.  Males have a longer and thicker tail than the female.  Its vent is posterior to the margin of the carapace.  Some of the species (G. flavimaculata, G. nigrinoda, G. oculifera, G. ouachitensis, and G. pseudogeographica) possess longer claws on their front feet.  Size matters!  In this species world the females are the largest.  Often the smallest female of the species will be as big as the largest male.  My guess is that God created them that way because the females need room for all those eggs they lay.

Graptemys caglei • Cagle's Map Turtle

I was wondering if, when Map turtles meet, one thinks "Wow!  That turtle is better looking than me!" because of the unique stripe patterns.  Does that turtle then get depressed because he or she somehow does not measure up?  Like us, does the Map turtle believe that the sum total of his or her value depends on the opinion of fashion journalists.  Do they hate each other because one has spots and the other has stripes, and therefore one or the other doesn't fit in?


Often I've looked at myself and thought: "How could anyone love that?"  I'm obese, therefore, in the eyes of doctors, fashion journalists, and scientists I am somehow less than I should be.  Am I?  Being bald makes me wonder if I am somehow less because I don't have as much hair as Pastor Joe Silva, or Don Patterson.  Is this true?  How do I determine the sum total of my value?

Graptemys flavinaculata
Yellow-bloched Map Turtle

Jesus died for me.  It's really that simple!  Every time I put myself down I need to remember that there is no way to measure the value of one drop of His blood.  If He died for me, shed His blood for me, my value must be based on that one fact, and that fact alone.  Skin color doesn't matter (we all have the same pigment in our skin anyway, just more or less)!  Education doesn't matter.  Social standing doesn't matter.  Money doesn't matter.  Being fat or thin doesn't matter.  What matters is that Jesus died for me!  Me!

When I take my eyes off of Jesus I forget who I am and lose my sense of value.  Studying nature teaches me that.  An oak tree is not somehow better than an Aspen tree.  The Yellow-bloched Map turtle is not better than the False Map turtle.  Each was uniquely created.  Every one has a beauty and purpose that belongs to it alone!

Graptemys versa • Texas Map Turtle

The sum total of my person is not in what I think about myself, or what others think of me!  My value is not based on how much money I make, or how successful I am in my job, or what kind of car I drive or house I live in!  When I look upon others through the eyes of the Creator, suddenly I can look beyond clothes, hairstyles, skin color, and body dimensions.  I can see a unique creation, a soul that only He can fill, and a person for whom He died.  James asked the question:  Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?  Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs?  Neither can salt water produce fresh.  He asked those questions after he talked about the tongue.  Remember?  With it we bless our Lord and Father; and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing.  My brethren, these things ought not to be this way.  No kidding!

Graptemys nigrinoda
Black-knobbed or Ringed Map Turtle

I may not love my actions, or thoughts, or words, but I can love me.  Your actions, thoughts, and words may be offensive to me, but I can love you in spite of those things.  If we treasure His words in our hearts, bless Him, repeat His words more often than our own, rejoice in the way of His testimonies, the straight and narrow path that leads to His Kingdom, meditate on His words and think about them, we will delight in them and not forget them.  Satan really wants me to see myself as a looser, not as someone for whom Jesus died.  Jesus really wants me to see myself as someone He loves and cares for, someone who is worthy, not a looser, someone for whom He has won the battle.  Wow!  I feel good!