WATER BORN!

  ‘Mayfly’ by David Mackerel is licensed under CC BY 2.0  

God is doing it again!!!  He is speaking to us through ‘The Book of Nature’ about the critical importance of and spectacular opportunity to be regenerated, to be reborn!!!  He has said the same thing countless times through physical birth, the metamorphosis of a butterfly, the germination of seeds and now in this post, the regeneration of insects.  He says the same message over and over in a variety of ways, so we have every opportunity to understand what He is saying.  How does anyone miss this message?  

2 Corinthians 13:1 says that a word is established by only three witnesses!  There are billions of Book of Nature witnesses telling us that we need to be reborn, regenerated, transformed, resurrected, germinated!  It’s all the same message!  As Job said, ‘Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you.’  
(AND EVEN THE INSECTS) have something to say.  

Once again, God is real interested in speaking to us about regeneration.  I.E. Bringing us into a renewed existence, bringing us a new and more vigorous life, giving us a new and higher spiritual nature.  Showing us through the use of metaphor, how to be reformed or reborn, especially in the spiritual sense. New Oxford American Dictionary.      

Regeneration is happening to countless insects all over the world, right in front of our eyes!  To the Mayfly, with 3000 species and to the 3500 species of mosquitoes, to the dragonfly, damselfly, stonefly, caddisfly, that all spend a few days to 6 years as nymphs underwater before they emerge from the water as adults.  Who wouldn’t want to rise out of a nymphal (worm like) stage under water into to a ‘new and more vigorous life’?  

To be able to fly, see the world, feel the warmth of the sun, the wind at your back.  That is exactly what happens to the Mayfly and a host of other insects.  They emerge out of the water leaving their old self, the nymphal skin behind.  (see link to clip below).  

It is absolutely amazing to me the parallels between insect and Christian regeneration.  It is a perfect metaphor for water baptism! These insects receive a ‘new and more vigorous life’.  The Christian is given ‘a renewed existence’, ‘a new and higher spiritual nature’.  As the scripture says, ‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  
2 Corinthians 5:17.

For a Christian, water baptism is symbolic of a regeneration that has already occurred.  When a person receives Christ, He gives them a precious gift!  His Holy Spirit. (since He is no longer here physically).  Jesus said to His diciples, ‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit). The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you’.  John 14:16-17

His Holy Spirit comes to live in you and ‘regenerates’ your spirit which from the moment of birth was cut off from God. ‘He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him’.  
1 Corinthians 6:17. 

Again, in John 1:12, the scripture says, ‘as many as receive Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.’

We were all fully intended to be His children.  But sin entered into the world and we were born separated from Him.  Life is all about being regenerated or being given a ‘renewed existence and a higher spiritual nature’, ‘born of God’, reconnected to God who loves us.

When we are baptized, we publicly declare to the world, that we have become Christians.  As we are lowered into the water, we leave our old lives behind, like the adult insect leaves his old dead nymph stage behind, and are raised up, out of the water, resurrected to live a new life! 

‘We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.’  
Romans 6:4.

Can you see the amazing parallel?  These insects are also born out of water and leave their old life behind!  

Take a beautiful lesson from the Mayfly and the others.  Be regenerated so that you too can live a ‘new and higher spiritual life’ joined to God by His Holy Spirit, living a resurrected life as a new son or daughter of God. 

Magnificent mayfly
Muddy water wombed
Your lowly state
Risen to parabolic splendor
Can we?
If perhaps muddied be.   MRB

(See the Mayfly’s parabolic splendor in the photo above.)

Take a moment to click on the link below and watch a clip at the end of an incredible video entitled, ‘Microcosmos’, a documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. 1996.
This clip shows the regeneration of a mosquito as it emerges from the water.  
YOU WILL NEVER LOOK AT A MOSQUITO IN THE SAME WAY AGAIN!