A Cicada Emerges. Hope Rises.

Yesterday the kids and I watched a cicada emerge out of it's shell. I know they're kind of ugly looking things, but the process is absolutely amazing! While we were playing outside, we kept running back to it's place on the wall, to see it's progress.

When the first half breaks through, the wings look like tiny shriveled clumps. Gradually they expand. When they are fully stretched, they look like large, translucent shields. Gorgeous veins run through to the tips.


About an hour later, we checked on it again. It was still there...clinging to it's old shell. This image struck me funny. A being who has large, perfect wings...clinging to it's lifeless old self. I immediately thought of the verse, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."

I actually got excited. I felt hope rush through me. I've been made new! The places where I feel stuck, where I'm trying to change myself, it's not going to happen if I'm clinging to my old self. It's only going to happen if I choose to believe my Creator.  
Do I believe the wings he gave me actually work or not?

This is a GREAT promise...
His divine power has granted to me all things that pertain to life and godliness...by which He has granted to me His precious and very great promises, so that through them I may become a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.    (adapted from 2 Peter 1:3,4 ESV)

I can partake of the DIVINE nature through His promises! I can live supernaturally! I want to live in the power He has granted me.

Faith is believing Him. If I can trust Him...believe that He keeps His promises...then I can let go of myself. I can live differently. I can fly.