“Do Giant Leopard Moths come back for their babies?” I eagerly typed into Google. The evening prior, I discovered a Giant Leopard Moth on our back door frame and just below it, piles of minuscule eggs. It was my first time seeing a Giant Leopard Moth and due to its size and the black and white pattern on its wings, I was immediately captivated.
I excitedly ushered my kids outside to take a look thrilled that we had a front row seat to a science lesson right in our yard. Upon my search, Google gave me some sad news. Not only would the moth not be coming back, it was likely already dead. I sadly learned, “. . . after mating, the female lays her eggs on host plants and then dies shortly after, meaning she does not return to check on them.”
How could Cruella, as we ironically named her, endure such a cruel fate? Initially, it was hard for me to reconcile how this could be. After spending an unexpected amount of time dwelling on the fate of female Giant Leopard Moths, I was hopeful as our moth had reminded me of my calling. God used creation to encourage me to remain faithful to the Great Commission.
This call is given to Christians in Matthew 28:18-20 which says, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.'”
While I’m sad that I won’t see our moth again, I’m eagerly anticipating the moment we’ll witness her offspring hatch. Her absence and death are sad and yet I’ve had the joy of observing that creation, like Christ followers, nurtures life in the face of death [1]. Our moth’s appearance that afternoon coincided with a season of discouragement we’d been experiencing. It was a timely reminder that even hard seasons can’t thwart the work God is doing. In a world full of death, both physical and spiritual, He continues to produce new life and in His kindness, He not only allows us to witness it, He invites us to participate in it!
Life is an incredible, precious, undeserved gift, and possessing it physically and spiritually reminds me of how lovely my God is. In Job 42:2, Job confidently declared, “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” If you are in Christ, God is finishing the work He’s begun in you by the power of His Spirit (Philippians 1:6, Romans 8:11).
Nothing can stop it. If death and sin couldn’t thwart God’s plan of redemption then, they have no way of stopping the work He’s doing now. God is sovereign over sin and even when it seems like sin is winning, He remains in control. Sin is strong but Jesus is, indeed, stronger. Even when we don’t see it and can’t feel it, He’s working.
God brought resurrection life to Jesus and if you’ve trusted in Christ, He’s also raised you to newness of life (Romans 6:4). And He continues to sustain us and grow us as He conforms us to Christ’s image (Romans 8:28-29, 2 Corinthians 3:18). This process of dying to sin and self is painful yet productive. When it comes to resurrection life, dying to sin and self is the way. In John 12:24 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
May God’s sovereignty compel us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and in a world surrounded by death, not only look for life but seek to give it as well. May we pursue unhindered faithfulness to the Great Commission, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up,” (Galatians 6:9).
[1] Credit for this concept goes to Gloria Furman who first wrote about it here.
