That’s certainly not a very attractive background for the gorgeous luna moth in the above photo, but the moth doesn’t care about being part of a photo shoot. It has one purpose as an adult and that purpose is to mate. And it might have a week to do so. When luna moths emerge from their cocoons, the females emit pheromones that the males detect with their feathery antennae. They mate, the females produce eggs, and the adults die. The adults don’t even have appropriate mouthparts for feeding. Their sole purpose is to reproduce.
Mayfly
You can say the same thing about the purpose of an adult mayfly as you can say about the adult luna moth. Its goal is to reproduce. Mayflies are said to have the shortest life of any insect, living only about 24 hours. Keep in mind that we are only talking about the life span of the sexually mature adult, and the life span could vary slightly (shorter or longer) for different species. Mayflies mate in swarms while flying over bodies of water (or over paved roads they mistake for water). Females drop their eggs into the water, and as the adults die, they also fall back into the water and become fish food. Their sole purpose is reproduction.
Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly 
Calico Pennant Dragonfly 
Common Whitetail Skimmer 
Widow Skimmer 
Slaty Skimmer
Adult dragonflies also have a very short lifespan, but they do live longer than mayflies or luna moths. They might make it up to 6 months, but their purpose is still reproduction. They do, however, have to eat, since they live longer than a day or a week, and they are predators of other flying insects. Still, it’s a short life with only two major goals – feeding and mating.
Cicada
You may remember I recently wrote about cicadas, so you may also remember that they only live about 5 weeks as adults. And, like the dragonflies, they only exist to feed and mate. A cicada has a beak-like mouthpart used for drinking sap from trees, and when it isn’t drinking, it’s probably mating or looking for mates.
You may be wondering what I’m getting at with all this talk about short life spans and eating and reproducing. Thinking about the short lives of these insects and their mostly singular purpose of species propagation makes me think about the brevity of our own lives and our purpose for existing. Sure, generally speaking, humans live much longer than all of those insects, but in the grand scheme of things, we are only promised a short time on this planet. So what are we supposed to do with the time that we have? Eat? Reproduce? Yes and yes. Work? Yes. We have those things and so many more options on which we can focus, but, like those insects, I think we also have a main purpose, which sometimes gets lost among all of our many other goals in life. The author of Ecclesiastes states our purpose best in Ecclesiastes 12:13. “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” Another great verse is Micah 6:8, which says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” And let’s not leave out Ephesians 2:10. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Another verse that helps me stay focused on my purpose in life is Colossians 3:17. “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” If our lives aren’t centered on God and obeying his commandments, then we aren’t living with the right purpose. We only have a short time with no promise of tomorrow, so let’s make sure we go about each day with that singular purpose of keeping God’s commandments!
“Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” James 4:14
