The other day when we skipped church we went to a park to play. We found a Cicada shell. I’m not grossed out by them. I grew up collecting them from trees and playing with them. Bugs don’t bother me. Spiders, that’s another thing. Anyway, we got to talking about this little guy.
The kids were super grossed. But I explained this wasn’t actually the bug. The critter was long gone. “Is it dead?” They asked. Nope. They stay in their former form for a good long while and then they molt this skin. Leave it behind to go off and live the rest of their lives. You can see a pretty cool time lapse photography image of one molting and flying off on the Cicada Wiki page. (Not for the squeamish, just sayin’.)
We’ve had a hard time explaining cemetaries for a while now. It’s hard to explain to young ones. When my grandmother passed away a year ago we all went to the graveside service. We did not “pay our respects” by parading by the body. It’s just not something we do. I see no point in it. In fact, I believe it to be a disturbing warped part of our cultural traditions. We don’t do it. But since everyone else there was doing it and we were hanging back by a tree we had to explain to the kids what they were doing and why we were not. We explained to the kiddos that that’s not our loved ones up there. They are already gone. It’s a shell of who they were. The body. The real them, the spirit, the whole of who a person really is, is no longer here to be seen. The real person is now living eternally. Somewhere. So we don’t dwell on standing around ogling over a dead body at funerals. We see it pointless to spend thousands of dollars to cover a box over with dirt. But the message is for the living. To seek His face. While He may be found.
I’m constantly amazed at how God reveals His glory through His creation.
3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3
18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:18-21
We’re not afraid of teaching science in our homeschool. We embrace it. We teach Truth. That He created all of nature. That all of nature will declare His glory. And we even teach secular thoughts on science. My kids learn who Darwin is and what he believed. They learn when dinosaurs really roamed the earth and when scientists say they roamed the earth. They know the estimated actual age of the earth and the proposed age.
As Bob Deffinbaugh states in his essay “Nature’s Part in God’s Perfect Plan”:
“Our study should have convinced us that God is the Creator, and creation is His handiwork. There can be no contradiction between true science and correct biblical interpretation. Let us therefore not forsake the sciences as though they were contradictory to our faith. Faith opens one’s eyes to the works of God. Unbelief blinds men from the message nature proclaims.”
This weekend may you seek Him. In all His glory. In all His creation. And may you make the invisible seenfor your kids. Even if it means grossing them out with Cicada shells!
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