The Cicadas Know A Secret
Well, I have been thinking about the cicadas for days now and knowing that they are speaking a message to me from God. I haven't known what exactly... just bits and pieces that make sense, but then hit a dead end. But today I will put something down for your consideration since, as Maya Angelou so aptly put it, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."
The periodical cicada is a fascinating creature. What you are hearing now is the call of countless males intent on finding mates. The females then lay eggs on branches. A few weeks later, both adults die. When the eggs hatch, the nymphs fall to the ground, enter the soil, and feed on roots-- for either 13 or 17 years (13 in our region). Then they climb out of the earth and back up a tree (or some tall object), shed their skins, and emerge as adults to begin the cycle all over again.
I don't know about you, but that 13 years in the ground gives me real pause. I mean, that's got to be pretty confining and boring, not to mention DARK. How does anything live without the sun? I know all you scientists out there are dying to tell me, but that's really not my burning question. As with all things in nature, I wonder what it has to teach me about God and my relationship to Him, for the lessons are ALWAYS there in nature.
I guess first I have been thinking about the boredom and monotony of waking up every morning to eat the same roots in the same darkness -- no traveling around for these guys. Yet, God has made them to be content with this because this is how they will mature and complete their life cycle, such as it is. The encyclopedia (no, I didn't Google this stuff) says nothing about the cicadas' benefit to nature in those 13 years; in fact, when the female lays the eggs, she saws into the twig bark and kills the tip of the twig.
So, here we have a creature who spends 13 years in the ground eating, emerges to reproduce, and then almost instantly dies. What's the use of it? Then I thought about how often I am bored, straining at the bit to make my life more exciting, discontent when things are moving slowly -- or not at all. Living in the present moment is so very difficult, isn't it? Thanking God for what is here and now, accepting it, enjoying it fully, without regretting what could have been or anticipating what might be. To be satisfied with what comes down to us from the Father of Light. To be content not being productive, not having to validate our existence. Just simply living. Very, very few of us have even the faintest clue how to do that.
And the darkness. I don't like to think about it, but it's evident something good is going on down there in the dark with those cicadas; they are munching away and staying alive. As I said, not exciting, but we have no idea what else they are doing down there to have fun. Jesus said the rocks would cry out to praise Him if we don't; I guess that means the cicadas have that capability also. Reckon they are doing that in their cicada-way down there? My takeaway from this is that good things can happen in the darkness; God can teach us things while we are icing cakes, but He seems to keep His deepest answers to mysteries hidden in the dark and pain that come to us. St. John of the Cross tells us that God does some of His best work in us during the dark night of the soul. That's when we think everything is going to hell-- literally. It doesn't have to be life-shattering stuff; it could simply be a time when we feel rudderless, purposeless, alone, or just stuck. Could it be there where WE learn how to praise Jesus?
The scary part is that we don't know how long that darkness is going to hang around -- one hour can feel like 13 years, right? A tip from the cicadas -- stay busy living, no matter how mundane, praising and trusting Jesus, because the light eventually comes. Isaiah said it best: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned" (9:2)
And then we realize a stupendous fact: that Christ essence has been in us, available to us, all the time in the darkness, just like it is in the cicadas that came into being through His Word.
See, I bet those cicadas already knew that and have been talking about it down there this whole time.