The other morning during breakfast one of the fellas asked if anyone had seen any cicadas and said the thought they were due in big numbers this year.
He had seen a few and had forgotten when the last “great outbreak”
was. When ask, I was informed, "It's a ugly, nasty, four legged bug." I let it be known that I stand
confidently by the passage in the book of Leviticus that states, "Winged
insects that have four feet are detestable." After a good laugh all agreed
that they are really ugly and really no count except for fishing bate. I had never really understood the worth or habits of the cicada so I studied a little about
this insect.
There is one kind in particular that I'm sure to find worth wondering at when I might see them and their invasion. It is the "periodical cicadas" emerging from their secret bug lairs every 17 years to mate and lay their eggs—500 trillion eggs to be exact. I understand that they are quite detestable as they come creeping out of the ground in astonishing, invasive populations, in what is the single greatest regular outpouring of insect life on the planet.
In researching these insects, I find that: for a few weeks, periodical cicadas emerge across the country in droves, dodging people and cars, devouring horticulture, and then dying in mass numbers, leaving behind their winged bodies as a stinking reminder of their brief existence and their promised return. In exactly 17 years, like clockwork, they will be back. Scientists have no idea how they mark the passage of time, how they mysteriously know to come creeping out of the ground again like miniature space invaders in a science fiction novel. As one scientific observer notes, the periodic cicada vividly reminds the world that "underneath our tidy gardens and parks lurk vestiges of untamed nature."
Interestingly enough, just this week, another situation has brought the lurking presence of periodical cicadas. A presence of which I have been completely unaware until I was concidering what I had just read and considering a New Testament teaching on speaking. James teaches about the power of the tongue and its unleashed and creeping presence within my life. And his language is just that evocative as he writes in chapter 3, verse 7, "All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison." James is writing so that his audience might see in what is untamed and detestable the dire need for God's mercy. Then his admonishment to me comes in verses 9 thru 11. "For with the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be"
I have an idea that most fellow believers would agree that there is a clear truth to we can all testify. That truth is: Words spring forth from our tongues at times unplanned and untamed. Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza once noted, "experience more than sufficiently teaches that people govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues." When I look in the Psalms, I read of destructive words emerging from hearts filled with destruction, tongues speaking deceit from throats that are open graves. It seems to me that the psalmist sees the connection between the emerging words and the soil of a heart, also seeing clearly a need for God to cultivate it. "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord my rock and redeemer." I am convicted in believing this, that I am going to make it one of my most honest and indispensable prayers—for much lurks beneath the soil.
Like the cicada, whose communal emerging reminds me that all is not as tidy and peaceful as it appears within my vegetable and flower gardens, so my tongue reminds me that much is lurking within my heart.
Father, God, I humble come this morning, confessing that my tongue
is a detestable creature, a restless evil. I thank You that although in its
toxic influence I am reminded of my need for One who hears my words, quiets my
tongue, and gives me a better word. I remember You, the God who tamed the
lions that shared a den with Daniel and the ravens which brought Elijah bread
both morning and night. It is You alone who can tame also my tongue. Amen
