The Giant Sequoia, Cicada, and Me

Several years ago, an experience and a news story prompted me to start thinking.  First, the experience.  This was an incredible trip out West where my husband and I had the opportunity to visit the Yosemite National Park, Giant Sequoia National Park and King’s Canyon.

Kings canyon sign 100_3502
Kings Canyon National Park.

The scenery was jaw‐dropping.

Yosemite 2011 WRM 086
We walked 1/2 mile to an overlook and emerged out from the wooded mountainside to see this incredible vista.

For this story though, the majesty of the scenery takes a back seat to the Giant Sequoia Trees.  These trees are beautiful and to say they are tall would be an insult … they are huge … no, they are gargantuan!

Yosemite 2011 WRM 016
Giant Sequoia Trees in the Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park. So tall that their branches begin at a height the other trees can only begin to reach.

While no one really knows how old the trees are, the National Park Service says that it is estimated that the Giant Sequoia Trees are between 1800 and 2700 years old.  Some of the trees have even been given names of states, presidents and influential people in our country’s history.

In 2002 the National Park Service measured the trees and found, for example, that the tree named General Sherman is 274 feet in height and 102 feet in circumference.  The tree named General Grant is 268 feet tall and 107 feet in circumference.  The tree named Washington was 254 feet high and 101 feet in circumference.

Now to the news story. The headline was something like “17 years in the making” [not an exact quote].  The article discussed the upcoming, expected cicada invasion.

Cicada
Cicada

Now, if you don’t know what a periodical cicada is, you might not think this is a big deal, but the word “invasion” might tip you off to the significance of this event.  Those of us who have experienced these bugs in person know that they are hard to ignore.  [How do you miss tens of millions of grasshopper‐looking, flying, chirping insects whose collective sounds, magnified by the sheer incredible number of them, sounds like a very loud hum?  That’s not really a question that needs an answer!]

I know that as a species, the cicadas have been around for millennia.  While I do not do this (yuck), many people in our world eat cicadas as a source of protein and calcium (I shiver as I write this!).  Further, records show that they were eaten in Ancient Greece, China, Malaysia, Burma, and Latin America.  (By the way, female cicadas are considered to be meatier than their male counterparts! Who knew?) And cicada shells are not uncommonly used in Chinese traditional medicines. (Shiver!)

The periodical cicada’s life can be summarized by the statement that it lives underground sucking on tree roots for 17 years, emerges and mates for 4 to 6 weeks and then dies … all of the cicadas doing this at essentially the same time.  The female lays her eggs in tree limbs from which, after hatching, the future cicada drops to the ground, and burrows into the dirt where, during the next 17 years it matures and then emerges to do this ritual all over again.

What do the cicadas have to do with me, other than that I can’t stand the sight, sound or thought of gazillions of cicadas dive‐bombing me when I am outside?   In short, they don’t have much to do with me at all, personally.  They are outside and I am inside when they are around!

But, when I considered the comparative difference between the giant sequoia trees and the cicadas, I was prompted to think about all of God’s creation, including me.  Although the species has survived for millennia, why are these insects so short‐lived while the Giant Sequoia Trees have grown and survived for over 15 centuries — and where do I fit in?

God created all of us, you and me as well as the sequoia and cicadas and we each have our own specific God‐given role in this world.  I am much more like the cicada than the sequoia in terms of life‐span.  If I survive to 100 it will be a miracle, but the sequoia tree is not even out of its proverbial diapers at that point in time; whereas the cicada will have had almost 6 generations when I reach 100 years of age.

In the book of Genesis, we read:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Genesis 1:26-28.

On the basis of creation’s history in Genesis, I can affirmatively assert that I am different, unique, separate, from the sequoia and cicada because God said so.  Mankind is viewed by God as being the paramount creature in the creation story — we were created in God’s image, something that does not apply to any other creature.  And, God said that we are to have dominion over all the rest of creation, because that is how God ordained it to be.

Of course, we know that Adam sinned and we are not in the same state of grace that applied at the time of creation.  But the sin of humankind does not reduce or eliminate the sovereignty of God.

The Psalmist says that we are to measure our days because they are numbered by God.  (Psalm 39:4‐5) God’s sovereignty even extends to His knowledge of how long each of us will live.  Each of us has a specific purpose that God has ordained, and we will only find our true happiness, comfort and peace in God when we fulfill that purpose.

We are told in Scripture that He has given His Son’s life as an atoning sacrifice for us … not for the cicadas or sequoia.   We can be assured that we are of infinitely more value to God than either the Giant Sequoia Tree or the cicada because, as a result of His grace and Christ’s death and resurrection, God has made a way for believers in Christ to be with Him for eternity!

Praise Him.  And may I use the days that He has granted to me for His glory.

Father, I praise You for the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, your Son and my Savior.  I praise You for the gift of life and for your sustaining presence, grace and mercy towards us.  I pray that You would conform me to the image of your Son so that I would glorify You.

Let me know if you agree, like or want to comment. Thanks. .

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