CICADA METAPHOR

Tis the season!!!! BILLIONS of cicadas, BROOD X, 2021 are emerging, especially in the Eastern part of the United States, after spending 17 years underground! What’s the point! They emerge, shed their exoskeleton, fly around for a while, mate and die. Ask them!! ‘(Ask the bugs and they will teach thee)’ I believe God is screaming a message to you and I at 80 decibels, “BE BORN AGAIN”!

   Cicada shedding its exoskeleton in our backyard!  Photo by Kris.

Ever seen a cicada?  Those big buggie eyed bugs that make all that noise?  The ones little boys squeeze to scare little girls?  (See pic above). We met them when we moved (believe it or not) from Seattle to Oklahoma.  We were lying in bed the first night in our new home when the cicadas began to sing? Buzz?  Unbelievable amount of noise!  I threw back the covers, went outside and hosed down the tree outside our window.  They stopped that infernal racquet!!!  Pleased with myself, I went back to bed.  About 15 minutes later, it all started up again!  Oh well, we are in Oklahoma I said to my wife and eventually went to sleep despite the racquet!  By the way, these bugs make a noise comparable to a chainsaw, 80 to 100 decibels!  Or perhaps you noticed those weird, shell-like structures hanging from just about everything in your yard!  They are actually the exoskeleton of these amazing bugs. (See pic above, exoskeleton is under the cicada).  

Believe it or not, some cicadas live under ground in a pupa or worm like stage for up to 17 years before emerging!!!  Scientists say, ‘they count the years by detecting the uptick in fluid flowing through the roots they feed on that occurs during each year’s spring growing season.’

O.K.  They ‘count’ the years?  (They don’t really know how in the world a cicada knows when to emerge from the ground.)  They just do.  It is just another of God’s wonders!

The cicada’s life cycle carries a powerful message!  It is another perfect picture or metaphor about being ‘born again’. Cicadas live in darkness almost their entire lives underground in a pupa or worm like stage.  Yes, they are alive, but they are a worm!  They cannot see anything and are certainly not able to move much, what a life!  Then they are ‘born again’!  They emerge out of that darkness into the light, shed their old wormy self and fly away! 

Without Jesus, we too are living in darkness!  The scripture says, ‘He came into this world as a light, so that no one who believes in Him should stay in darkness!’ John 12:46. Don’t you want to come out of that darkness into His light, be ‘born again’ like the cicada, shedding your old wormy self and become a new creation in Christ?  The scripture says, ‘if anyone is in Christ, (born again) he is a new creation; old things have passed away; (he has emerged from the darkness, shed that old wormy self with all its limitations) behold, all things have become new.’ He has become a new creation!  Now he can see the kingdom of God all around him and can fly!  2 Corinthians 5:17. NKJV.!  Because Jesus said, ‘I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’ John 3:3. 

Thank God that Jesus came ‘to open our eyes and turn us from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that we may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Him!!!’ Acts 26:18.

EMERGE!

Check this out! This is a photo of my old self!