why we have 13 year cicadas

I figured out why we have 13 year cicadas...the buzzing locusts that surround us right now in the woods.  The Lord wanted to show that a large number of the same creature could have one existence buried underground and another above ground and in flight.  For almost all of its life the cicada lives deep in the dirt clinging to roots and sucking nourishment from them.  They emerge after 13 years all together...numbering in the millions...to flex their wings, fly to the trees, mate...leave eggs on the trees and die.  The eggs fall to the ground and burrow down to repeat the cycle.  Of course scientists have their explanation as to why they all go through this cycle at the same time.  (They assert that the large numbers overwhelm predators capacity to eat, assuring survival of the species), but I think the Lord is painting a picture of His church.  We don't live underground but we do live under Heaven.  Our mobility, vision and range of living may seem normal but they are limited compared with the eternal dimension.  One day we will all be raised to a higher existence, in Heaven, with the Lord.  This is when the church is raptured...when Christ summons those alive or dead, who have trusted in His saving work on the Cross.  We will rise together, at that point, to a totally new form of living.  Fortunately we will not need to fear any predators from that point on.  And this transforming work will not repeat as it does with the cicada...it will only happen once!  I hope you are ready to rise at the call of our Savior.  I'm confident that the sound will be more attractive than the buzzing of the locusts!

1 Thessalonians 4:¹⁵ We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves. ¹⁷ Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever.

blessings (from one cicada to another),

Rob Smith