Let all of these praise the Lord’s name because only God’s name is high over all. Only God’s majesty is over earth and heaven. — Psalm 148:13
I look forward to those seasons when cicadas make their mysterious presence known.
For 13 to 17 years, they live underground. The larvae look like white, ghostly caterpillars, feeding off tree roots. Then, from some signal in their DNA, they dig up through the soil, trudge through the lawn, climb up tree trunks, and hold on as they metamorph into plump creatures with eerie eyes and long wings. They fly, loudly attract mates, reproduce, then fade away. A dog we once owned loved to munch on their carcasses then poop out the wings.
God made them. They fulfilled their purpose by doing what God wanted. God smiled.
And God made us. When we fulfill our purpose by doing what God wanted, God smiles.
The job description of the cicada is simple: emerge from the earth, party, return to the earth.
Ours is simple as well: emerge from the earth, do justice–love kindness–walk humbly (Micah 6:8), return to earth.
The cicada pictured above clung to our screen door. I was waiting for him/her to fly away but it turns out Charlie/Charlene had given up the ghost already. But now this little miracle in a glass display will serve as a reminder that whoever/whatever we are, we live to please God.
It shouldn’t take us 13 to 17 years to put a smile on God’s face.