Firefly lessons ~ Blessings Emmanuel

I’m ever thrilled by the firefly. As a little girl, I spent a reasonable amount of time chasing after fireflies at night. Sometimes I sang for them, I danced, clapped and stomped my feet in rhythms, hoping my various acrobatic displays will get their attention.

Who wouldn’t be enchanted by the elegance of fireflies at twilight or their brilliant dazzle when the moon graces them with its silvery torrent? What a sight to behold!

You should watch them when darkness hovers after twilight and persists into dawn, and the moon prefers to mask behind the clouds, keeping the earth starved of its full radiance. Humans could take such circumstance as an avenue for indolence, Not the fireflies!

To the fireflies, the emergence of darkness is an advantage, a blank cheque, an opportunity they have long expected and trust me, they thrive in it. They pay no regard to the husky voice of dark nights. At such times, the world becomes a theatre and that thick darkness becomes their stage. They surge in their large numbers and spill their light on the face of the earth. The thicker the darkness, the brighter they blaze.

This act of the fireflies reminds me of the word of God through Prophet Isaiah in the second verse of the sixtieth chapter where he says, ‘For, behold darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.’ The verse above has just given an explicit and coherent explanation of the command given in the first verse of the same chapter, which says, ‘Arise, shine; for thy light is come…’

Why would there be a need to shine if everywhere was lit? No one appreciates light in the absence of darkness. Little wonder the first chapter and fifth verse of the gospel of John relayed darkness as a prerequisite for light to shine, ‘And the light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.’

Light is more than a dispersion. It is a mystery; darkness cannot comprehend (fathom) its operation. Science has proven that light travels at a constant speed of 299 792 458 meters per second. This explains why a single light bulb can illuminate an entire compound. In the same vein, you alone can light up the world. You are the light of the world. God did not design you to flee from darkness. He created you to shine in darkness.

We should be optimistic like the fireflies to see darkness at every phase and sphere of life as a prerogative to radiate brighter. You are an offspring of the father of light; it is only expedient that you shine.