Saturday, June 04, 2016

Lightning Bug Blessings

by Dr. James R. Brooks

As I took the dog for his last walk before bedtime, we approached the lower field on my parent’s property.   A piece of land in the country neighborhood where I roamed with friends as a children.  The field was a fire with lightning bugs.  Acres of blinking lights from the fluorescent insects.
As the dog and I stood in the dark, I was in awe of God’s creation both in the memory of my youth and in the blinking lights of the present.  A moonless night caused by cloud cover.  The damp of spring rains reign in the air.
Lightning bugs are a symbol of God’s blessings.
Yes, you can catch a blessing if you try.  Yes, you can ruin a blessing by squashing it barehanded or plowing through it with a windshield.  Yes, you can allow it to light the night of your life.
Seemingly a million blinking insects fill the field beyond the scope of my peripheral vision.  
It is awesome to see these little lights that both fill the night and yet barely glow.
Individually they are so easily a smear on the glass.  Collectively they are undeniable.
I allow myself to wallow in the light of this mystery of evolution.  That such chemical braggadocio should evolve in such a slight creation.  Definitely a bug of the moment, celebrating God with no fear of the future or the winged predator aiming upon the light.
Were that field my life, would not I count as many blessings as I did lightning bugs tonight?
Beyond my scope, within my grasp, motivating my morning with the awe of this evening?
May the lightning bug be a symbol of the cross?  So fragile incarnate yet so fluorescent divine?

Be kind to the lightning bug you collect.  It is your blessing.

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