Bugs - by Joel.

So once again I'm a little behind in getting my thoughts on to a blog. I think last April I wrote about the beauty of winter, so now in the middle of January I'm going to write about bugs.
For starters, here's my favorite:
The pine beetle, or spruce beetle - I'm not sure which. They tend to be a inch to two inches long with long curved antenna that long as well. It seems they have very little control over their flight. And they're dumb as a bag of hammers. Maybe that's why I like them - they make me feel smart. I'm not intimidated by pine beetles the way one might be by say, a dragonfly.

Dragonflies are beautiful and fast and strong. They seem invincible.
But there was this day back in July. We were building a house on Two Island lake, taking coffee break on a grassy point jutting out into the lake. As I sat down on an old log by the fire-pit I saw hanging from a twig what seemed to be the discarded exoskeleton of some kind of water beetle. Next to it was a dragonfly that seemed in no hurry to fly off. I wondered if there were a connection between the two despite the difference in their shapes. Looking around, my co-worker and I soon discovered in the grass all over the point were hundreds of dragonflies hanging from reeds and sticks and alongside them were these shells. Upon closer inspection we found that some of the dragonflies had tiny little wings and their abdomens were curled up. We were watching a dragonfly hatch! In their final of many larvae stages as a water dwelling insect the dragonflies had climbed ashore and crawled out of their skin. As they soaked up the sun their wings would unfurl and abdomens uncurl. It looked like a slow process. And what struck me was this: the seemingly invincible dragonfly, for these few hours of its life is totally vulnerable. I learned later that even in the water it is a vicious predator. But as I sat there on that grassy point I saw one dragonfly who had fell victim to red ants. Before its wings had fully dried, a dozen or more red ants had taken it captive and were already dismantling it to drag back to the colony.

It made me heartsick. I know that the ants have to eat too, but it stirred up something deep within me. I felt it again watching BBC's Planet Earth, as animals fell prey to each other. And most recently last fall as I took the knife to the belly of the doe I had just shot, while her fawn ran off into the forest.

And that's just animals! What about all the suffering caused to people at the hands of other people? What about infants born with heart abnormalities?

It makes me homesick. For my eternal home. Romans 8 talks about creation groaning from it bondage to corruption. Sometimes I groan too.

Its the corruption of death that has been in place since Adam and Eve chose a way other than the one offered by the Giver of Life.

In this world all life is dependent on death. We cannot eat without something dying - be it plant or animal. Even plants depend on the death of other plants for their nutrients.

Now imagine that the God who created a world full of life, that was then defiled and made a world full of death by his own creation, would subject himself into that world! Think of it - without the death of Jesus we have no life. None of us deserves anything other than eternal death because we've all rebelled in some way against our Eternal Giver of Life.

But here's the hope - Jesus did not stay dead! The pattern of life being dependent on death was broken. The power of God is stronger than death. And one day there will be a new heaven and new earth where there will be no more death, no more suffering, no more infants dying. And participation in that world requires the obvious - not saying "no" to the One who created you for it!

I am grateful for these moments of heartsickness. It just means I love Jesus so much more than this world. I can't wait to go home. But for now I'm also pretty excited about all He is doing here - bringing life and busting apart the cycle of sin and death.

So that's where my mind goes when I start thinking about bugs!