Nothing But An Insect

Think for a moment about how much attention you pay to insects. Now, all things being equal (assuming that not very many of us are entomologists), I’d be willing to bet that most of us don’t spend even one single minute of our days thinking about bugs. Maybe we get upset at the mosquito that just bit us or the fly that won’t stop buzzing around our head, but for the most part, insects are not something we devote much mental or emotional energy toward.

It is downright easy to go through our lives without any consideration of bugs and insects. By and large, they mean nothing to us and unless one of them happens to be directly in front of our face, we could not care less about them. As far as we can tell, they do not serve any particular purpose or add any apparent value to our lives.

And yet, the investigations of scientists have revealed to us that if these tiny, pesky, inconsequential creatures were to disappear, all life on the earth would be extinct within 50 years.

Pointless as they may seem, insects provide a multitude of invaluable services to the ecosystem of the planet. From the production of silk and honey to the pollination of plants and the decomposition of waste materials, the lives of bugs constitute a priceless necessity for all of the rest of us.

Now, it ought to be said that while one particular house fly here or there might not amount to much at all within the grand scheme of things, the truth still stands that it is a part of a much bigger and much more complicated, intricate, and beautiful biological process of which it is neither in control or even aware.

The Bible goes to great lengths to remind us all of our own inconsequentiality. “Man is like a breath, his days are like a passing shadow,” says Psalm 144:4. “What is your life?” James 4:14 asks, and answers, “For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” David rhetorically inquires in Psalm 8:4, “[W]hat is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”

The divide between us and the God that made us is greater than the one between ourselves and the insects we don’t even bother to consider. His eternality, His holiness, His purity, and His power are so high and above and beyond us that to consider our own comparative worthlessness can only stand as an absolutely warranted and foregone conclusion. To make things worse, our sinful rebellion against His unreachable goodness furthers the inescapable truth that we are less than nothing in comparison to Him.

And yet.

David follows his question in Psalm 8:4 with this answer in verses 5-8:

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

It would seem that we, like our fellow insects, have a purpose that far outweighs our apparent value.

You see, my friends, any one of us,­ in-and-of ourselves, like any single insect, doesn’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. We are not so important in-and-of ourselves that the world could not function without us. We do not affect things so profoundly in-and-of ourselves that life would not continue on as it always does past the moment of our expiration.

Praise God that He does not leave us to in-and-of ourselves.

Ephesians 2:10 tells us that, “[W]e are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” I John 3:1 directs us to, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”

Despite our resounding irrelevance compared to the ultimacy that is God and His purposes, He bestowed love on us “while we were still sinners,” (Romans 5:8) in order to adopt us as children. He did so because there was specific work He had in mind for us to do. Left to ourselves, we are nothing – a shadow, a breath, a fly buzzing around for a few moments during the long lifespan of human history. But, in Him, in Christ (Colossians 3:3), we become one part of a much larger, intricate, and beautiful mosaic (I Corinthians 12:27).

Just as individual insects don’t seem to have much of a purpose by themselves, they are nonetheless a part of something irreplaceable, priceless, and absolutely necessary.

To be Christian is to be an individual piece of an inimitable whole. You were made specifically and deliberately for the life in which you find yourself (Psalm 139:13-16), and the things you have been tasked to do have a purpose and reason far beyond your ability to calculate or comprehend.

You are the one sheep that the Shepherd has left the flock to find (Luke 15:1-7). But your truest value in life resides both in your belonging to the Shepherd and your place in the flock.

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For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation.
– Psalm 149:4

…but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His steadfast love.
– Psalm 147:11

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
– I Corinthians 12:27

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
– John 15:5

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, He is God!
It is He who made us, and we are His;
we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
and His courts with praise!
Give thanks to Him; bless His name!
For the Lord is good;
His steadfast love endures forever,
and His faithfulness to all generations.
- Psalm 100