The Mad Dash

I see ladybugs, fireflies and crickets as God’s toys of the insect world. He must have been smiling when He created them. Ladybugs have those pretty red polka-dotted wings. Lightning bugs have rear ends that light up! And cricket gentlemen pursue their lady friends by serenading them with their back wings rubbed together. I grew up believing that it was their back legs and that was a much funnier mental picture.

Those are the only “friendly bugs” that don’t intimidate me, the only ones I’d be willing to touch. So I didn’t panic on that first cold night of fall when I raised the garage door to take out the trash and so many crickets came hopping through. They must have felt the warmth coming from beneath the door.

And I had to think of that mad frenzy that must take them over. Winter is coming. A killing season for those left out in the cold. A short life span of only one year drives them to seek warmth and safety.

We’ve not been made aware of our own life spans or how long we have until Jesus returns. We do know He’s coming “in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.” (1 Corinthians 15:52a) But we tend to put things off, delay telling our neighbor how Jesus has changed our life, ignore that damaged relationship with a family member. We don’t have a timeline to worry about, so we choose “tomorrow”.

Just like the crickets that make that frantic effort at the last minute to get into the warmth, so we would dash around trying to make up for lost time if we knew how little of it we have left. Why not take this day to begin to prepare for your long eternal life in this fleeting one?

1 Peter 1:13, Philippians 1:6
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.