A Click Beetle and New Life

For the last two days, I encountered a strange, intermittent rustling noise that disturbed the early morning silence.  On a couple occasions I rose from prayer to try to find where the sound was coming from:  was it behind the lounge, near the window or in the attic?  This morning (for a few minutes) I was convinced the most reasonable explanation was the movement of air in the attic caused sound to come through the flexible duct through the register--until I finally found the culprit.  A click beetle had somehow made its way into the attic and found itself trapped in the white plastic lens of a ceiling light.  It could see it crawl up the lens, roll back to the bottom, and then stubbornly try again.

It is remarkable the beetle had the strength and endurance to continue actively trying to escape the ceiling light for over 24 hours with no water or food.  The constant effort to escape the plastic prison illustrated well the instinct God put in living creatures to keep living.  Later in the morning I was able to remove the plastic lens and relocate the insect to the front yard where the chance of survival for a beetle is far greater than in a ceiling light in my house.  The abundance of life on earth is unique in the observed universe, for God created living creatures and people and provides all that we need to survive and thrive.

This fight for survival in human beings is seen from the time we take our first breath until we breathe our last.  I am amazed by the great lengths people have gone to and severe trials and treatments people have endured to continue life on earth.  This desire to prolong our lives on earth impacts our desire for life beyond this earth, for God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  The Bible teaches that spiritually speaking we are all born dead in sins passed down through generations from Adam.  Our guilt is confirmed through making sin our own by practicing it, and God's word reveals we are bereft of hope and incapable of measuring up to God's perfect standard of righteousness.  Like the click beetle could not save itself from certain death in the ceiling light, so every human being is doomed to destruction because of our sin.  The best I could do was extend the chance of the bug living for a short while, but Jesus has done something infinitely better by providing assurance of eternal life for all who trust in Him.

While we were spiritually dead God said to us, "Live!"  God spoke a parable through the prophet concerning His redeemed people in Ezekiel 16:6 from the perspective of a traveller who found a discarded baby by the road with the placenta still attached:  "And when I passed by you and saw you struggling in your own blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' Yes, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!'"  God saw people like newborns that had not been washed, swaddled, held and loved, and He was determined to do everything lost sinners needed to be adopted into His family.  So God sent Jesus to be the Saviour of the world, to lay down His life on Calvary so all who trust in Him can repent of sins, be forgiven and live with Him forever.  Jesus said in the latter half of John 10:10, "...I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."  All who by faith enter the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus have an abundant life now and eternal life forever by Christ Who is our life.

It is like all our lives we have been trapped in a prison of sin, cut off from the living water of the Holy Spirit and love of God, and Jesus has set us free.  Having been born again by grace through faith in Jesus we are not merely given a better life now or optimal chance for survival, but we are granted the promise of abundant, eternal life we can enjoy today in the presence of our Saviour.  How blessed we are to have a Good Shepherd Who laid down His life so we could live, and by His resurrection Jesus demonstrated the victory over death and glorious life He has in store for all who love Him.