Are you ready to be invaded? Alien creatures from another world are about to ascend on us. In fact, by the time you read this, the invasion could already have happened. With bulging red eyes, membranous wings, tiny arms and legs, and covered in an exoskeleton that they will shed soon after the invasion, these creatures have the ability to ruin trees and bushes by their weight. Their superpower, though, is their singing and when combined with others will have the decibel range of a jet engine.
Get ready for cicada-geddon!
Cicadas typically stay burrowed in the ground. Known as broods, Brood XIII emerges every 17 years. Brood XIX emerges every 13 years. The emergence of these two broods overlaps this Spring.
“We’ve got trillions of these amazing living organisms come out of the Earth, climb up on trees and it’s just a unique experience, a sight to behold,” Georgia Tech biophysicist Saad Bhamla said. “It’s like an entire alien species living underneath our feet and then some prime number years they come out to say hello.”
“The largest geographic brood in the nation — called Brood XIX and coming out every 13 years — is about to march through the Southeast, having already created countless boreholes in the red Georgia clay. It’s a sure sign of the coming cicada occupation. They emerge when the ground warms to 64 degrees (17.8 degrees Celsius), which is
happening earlier than it used to because of climate change, entomologists said. The bugs are brown at first but darken as they mature. Soon after the insects appear in large numbers in Georgia and the rest of the Southeast, cicada cousins that come out every 17 years will inundate Illinois. They are Brood XIII.”1
There is nothing to fear. They don’t sting or bite. The worst thing that happens is that when that many shed their exoskeletons, the ground will be very crunchy! It’s their singing, though, that is the worst! Trillions singing together is going to be deafening. This is the male mating call. They rub their wings together which produces their song, attracting the females. Once they reproduce and the female lays her eggs, it’s back into the ground they go.
NW Ohio is NOT scheduled to be invaded. Yes, we will have the normal few cicadas in the trees but not the emergence of the broods.
Now, since it is Sunday, let’s think about this in a different way. Every week, there is an emergence of Christians going to church. I know – everyone going to church isn’t a Christian. But many are. They don’t congregate in trees but rather, gather in buildings across the nation. We are supposed to gather to worship the Lord collectively. But I have a feeling that the cicadas beat the average church goer in volume and enthusiasm.
Ephesians 5:19 says, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” And, Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Not only are we to sing for ourselves, but we are also to sing for others and we are to do it all “to the Lord.”
Perhaps we are self-conscious, or someone has told us that our voice makes the scream of a cicada sound pleasant. It could be that we think if we sing with volume and enthusiasm, others will claim we are just doing it to be showoffs. Therefore, our singing is tepid and dull.
As believers, we have good reason to lift our voices strongly and vociferously. Psalms 95:1-3 gives a call to worship. “O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. (2) Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. (3) For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.”
As we gather in church today, let’s lift our voices to the Lord. Hold nothing back. Let the joy and excitement for the Lord spill out of your heart and erupt from your voice. The Lord deserves nothing less than our best.
If the cicadas can do it, so can we!
1https://apnews.com/article/periodical-cicada-invasion-bugs-everywhere-locusts-evolution-e57f708cdcf144a20fe8f694e95b5d44
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