“to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life……” Ephesians 4:22a
My heart is heavy as I write today, because my mind is focused on the most recent acts of violence and hatred that have occurred in our country. I dedicate this blog to the victims of those senseless acts and to each of their family members. Please join me in prayer for comfort and healing for the communities of Dayton, El Paso, Gilroy, and Southaven. But I also ask you to pray for the ones who carried out these atrocities and for their families as well. I know that’s not an easy prayer to pray, but I believe it’s necessary to effect change. My mind goes to passages in Romans 12, so I’ll share verses 14-21 with you here.
The picture above looks like it could be a scene from a movie about an alien invasion. And, actually, the insect that left behind that gruesome looking exoskeleton could be considered an alien from an underground world. An adult cicada emerged from that shell, ready to reproduce and then die, after about 5 or 6 weeks. If you’ve been outside in the last few weeks, I’m sure you have heard their mating songs, seen their shed exoskeletons, and maybe even caught a glimpse of one singing in a tree or buzzing through the air. But you may never have seen how one of these lives underground. Cicadas have a pretty remarkable life cycle, which involves a series of changes known as incomplete metamorphosis.
Most insects go through one of two types of metamorphosis: complete or incomplete. (There is a third type that I won’t get into here.) In a general sense, metamorphosis is defined as “a major change that makes someone or something very different.” In the insect world, you’re probably most familiar with complete metamorphosis, like the type that occurs when caterpillars eventually become butterflies or, on a less glamorous scale, when maggots eventually become flies. This type of metamorphosis has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Larvae will molt (shed outer layer) several times in order to grow before finally entering the pupal stage. The larval stages and the adult insects are very different from one another and even eat different types of food. During the pupal stage, like a chrysalis or cocoon, the insect doesn’t eat, because its organs and tissues are being broken down and reorganized into its adult form, complete with wings.
A cicada does not have a larval stage or a pupal stage. Cicadas go through incomplete metamorphosis, which has only three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. A female cicada lays tiny, rice-shaped eggs in a groove that she makes in a tree limb. When the eggs hatch, the tiny cicadas look sort of like white ants, or maybe termites, and they feed on juices from the groove in the limb. When they are ready, the tiny nymphs fall to the ground and dig holes, where they begin to feed on small roots, like grass roots, at first. Then they will eventually feed on the roots of the tree from which they hatched. The underground nymphs are constantly busy tunneling and feeding, not resting as was once thought. After a period of 1 to 17 years, depending on the species, the nymphs will emerge from the ground and climb onto the nearest tree or fence post or structure they can find. Once they shed that final exoskeleton, they are adults with wings! Their wings have to inflate with fluid and their new exoskeletons have to harden before they start mating and complete their short adult lives.
I thought I would never spot one of these guys in a tree!
Adult cicadas spend their days in the trees looking for mates. Most male cicadas are the ones responsible for making the trees sound like they are singing. Males have drum-like organs on their abdomens called tymbals, which are quickly pulled in and out of shape by small muscles. Then the sounds produced are amplified because of the mostly hollow abdomens of the cicadas. Hopefully, all that singing will attract females! Click here to listen to the sounds of cicadas (and a dog barking).
In North America, there are over 190 varieties of cicadas, and there are over 3,000 varieties throughout the world. Cicadas are found on every continent except Antarctica. Some are periodical, which means they have long periods underground, even up to seventeen years. Some are annual, meaning they emerge every year. Others are proto-periodical so small numbers will emerge every year, but certain years will see large numbers emerge. In North America, Magicicada periodical, 17 & 13 year cicadas, should have emerged this year in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Arkansas, we should see them emerge again in 2024. How will you know if you see one of these? They are somewhat smaller, with dark bodies and gold-laced wings and striking red eyes!
Special effects! 
More special effects!
When I think about the metamorphosis that occurs in cicadas and the rest of the insect world, I can’t help but think about the metamorphosis that Christians undergo as they follow after Christ. Paul talks about this new life in Ephesians 4:17-32 and in Colossians 3:1-17. We are to put off our old selves and transform into our new selves to live different lives, just as the cicada transforms from a flightless nymph into a winged adult. We are to seek the things that are above and put earthly desires aside. We are to put away anger, lies, hatred, and impurity and put on compassion, kindness, humility, forgiveness, and especially love. If you continue reading in Ephesians 5, Paul talks more about walking in love and also about walking as children of light. He says, “for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:8a) (To read more about the transforming power of light, check out my Bible lesson on a different page of my website.) Just as the cicada leaves the darkness of the underground to enter a sunlit world, so we also leave the darkness of worldly living to walk in the light. If everyone would undergo the true metamorphosis that living for Christ entails, we would not be dealing with such acts of hatred as we have seen in the past few days. And, when the time comes, we will experience the final stage of metamorphosis – the changing from our mortal bodies to our immortal ones. “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
