Glowing Butts of Hope

Fireflies in the Garden by Robert Frost 

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can't sustain the part.

A few weeks ago I stood in Central Park with a dear friend.  We had stopped walking because she was incredibly fascinated and overflowed with excitement about the extraordinary amount of fireflies surrounding us.  I had always thought fireflies were cool (who doesn't?), but her intrigue and delight caused me to become more aware of the wonder of them, which gave opportunity for appreciation, which gave opportunity for revelation.  I will never see a firefly and just think "oh that's cool" again...

In an attempt to provoke your intrigue, I figured I would provide some interesting info about fireflies:

• Short lifespans- larvae usually live for approximately one year, adult fireflies live only for 1-2 weeks.
• Communicate with light.
• Produce the most efficient light in the world—nearly 100% of the energy is emitted as light. (Compare that to an incandescent bulb, which emits 10% of its energy as light and the rest as heat.  Because it produces no heat, scientists refer to firefly lights as “cold lights.”)
• In some species even the eggs and larvae emit light.
• Technically, fireflies don't have butts- their tails are what glow.  But I created a new phrase and I like it, so I'm sticking with "butts."

Not long after that night in Central Park, I spent a couple days with 2 friends at a farm in Iowa.  The night we got there I went up into this really cool "tree deck" thing, then climbed up onto a limb jetting out from the trunk.  I stood there taking in God's symphony of nature, basking in the serenity of a moment away from people, and looking out into mostly just darkness.  The next day I would see that the darkness was hiding fields as far as my eyes could see, eventually just disappearing into the horizon.  But that first night, the sky was full of clouds so there wasn't even much light from the stars or moon.  I was crying out for God to meet me in a fiercely real way in our short time at the farm, when suddenly the grandeur of this multitude of fireflies came into focus.  We had noted how extraordinary they were as we were driving, but they were kind of dull and scattered to me.  And then I'm standing in that tree and suddenly they became intensely bright and clear, and the sheer volume of them overwhelmed me.

In this moment God gave me this 'revelation image thing' (clearly I don't really know what to call it)...

This sea of fireflies offered these tiny glimpses of light that only last for several seconds at most.  It is still nearly pitch black out, but hundreds (if not thousands) were glowing as far as I could see- not even a second passed absent of the tiny green and yellow specks of light.  And every once in awhile a far off storm would shoot out some lightening that would jog across the horizon, offering a bigger but duller glimpse of light.

I realized that all these fireflies with glowing, neon butts are like glimpses of hope that God is continually putting in my life- people, words, experiences, sounds, sights... momentary, fleeting reflections of the greater hope of a future grace and a future glory (2 Corinthians 4:17).  If I fix my eyes on any one of these fireflies- glimpses of light/hope- it is only seconds before I am left disappointed as it disappears into the night.  But, if I can just marvel at the constantly changing but always present sea of fireflies- evanescent glimpses of light/hope- I realize that they are always somewhere, even if just a flash way off in the distance.  And every so often God offers more expansive, slightly extended streaks of light, like the lightening from the storm- reminding me that life/reality is vastly bigger than what I can see, especially in the darkness.  This light appears duller because my eyes wouldn't be able to handle it if it were as bright as the illuminated firefly butts.  However, it offers a light that gives a more extensive view of what lies beyond the dark.  The lightening is like the moments when God gives these encounters with Himself that are unmediated, and that boldly declare that there is more than what my vision enables me to see- that there is a light that will one day be totally unleashed and will swallow up the darkness entirely.

That night I prayed that God would keep putting fireflies with glowing butts of hope in my life- and help me to better see and recognize them; reminding me that even though the night is filled with darkness, hope always remains- even if all I can see are tiny, fleeting reflections of that hope.  And I prayed that He would give me an occasional sky-illuminating streak of lightening to remind me that He is the source of that hope, and the eternal reality is bigger and more real than the temporal reality that I can see (2 Corinthians 4:18).  And I prayed that He would give me the faith to believe that while the reflections of that hope will always fade and leave me disappointed if I concentrate on them, the hope that Christ embodies- the source of the light that is being reflected- WILL NOT, cannot, disappoint or put me to shame (Romans 5:5).

I highly recommend spending some time in 2 Corinthians 4 & 5... I don't know how directly it totally relates, but these chapters (and all of 2 Corinthians) are so foundational in my life, and I know a lot of this 'revelation image thing' is rooted in my experiences with this text.  And if you want an EXCELLENT aid in digging into 2 Corinthians, Sam Storms- a man who has impacted my life about as much as anyone ever and who is incredibly wise and godly- has written A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ: 100 Daily Meditations on 2 Corinthians and it is phenomenal.

Interested in learning more about fireflies?  Here are some of the resources I checked out:
     a really cool photography project
     National Geographic
     www.firefly.org

** I'm not one to "dedicate" posts, because that just seems weird to me for some reason.  But the 3 friends mentioned in this post have repeatedly been glowing butts of hope in my life, and I am extremely grateful for the multitude of ways that they reflect the hope we have in God.  So even though it is cheesy, this post is dedicated to these 3 glowing butts of hope that I love so deeply! **