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Today we meet one of the most surprising creatures God ever placed in the waters of this earth—a salamander that refuses to grow up in the usual way, a living picture of perpetual youth, astonishing regeneration, and quiet dependence.

Its name is the axolotl.

The scientific name is Ambystoma mexicanum . In the ancient Nahuatl language of the Aztecs it meant something like “water dog” or “water monster,” and it was linked to the god Xolotl. But we will look at this creature through the clearer lens of the God who made it—the God who delights in revealing His character through the works of His hands.

Picture a creature about eight to twelve inches long, weighing only a few ounces. It has a broad, flat head, small lidless eyes, and a permanent, almost smiling mouth. From the sides of its head sprout three pairs of feathery external gills that look like soft, pink or reddish plumes waving gently in the water. A low dorsal fin runs down its back and continues into a broad, flattened tail. Its legs are short and sturdy, ending in delicate toes. In the wild most are dark, mottled brown or gray so they can disappear against the muddy bottoms of their lakes. In captivity we see the famous leucistic forms—pale pink or white with bright red gills—that have made the axolotl a favorite around the world.

But the wild axolotl is in deep trouble. Its only natural home is the high-altitude lake system that once surrounded what is now Mexico City—especially the canals of Xochimilco. Those lakes have been drained, polluted, and invaded by non-native fish. Today only a few dozen to perhaps a thousand adult axolotls remain in the wild. Critically endangered. Almost gone from the place God first put them. Yet in laboratories and aquariums around the globe they thrive, studied intensely because of two gifts the Creator wrote into their design: neoteny and regeneration.

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