I invited three of the grands and their mama and we went on a firefly hike at the Botanical Gardens earlier this week. It was so enLIGHTening. I know you see what I did there, but it was truly a learning experience for me. Of course, it’s the male firefly, who puts on the show during the mating season. In the common “lightening bugs” as we call them, that inhabit our yards in the months of June and July, the male makes a J-shaped streak of light and the female responds with several little flashes. Then the kids go for them both and try to get them in their jars and put them beside their beds for fall-asleep flashes a few minutes later. It’s a fun phenomenon that we’ve done a hundred times, at least, through the years.
But did you know there are other fireflies—less common, but way more exciting to the young science (and horror) enthusiasts? Did you know about the Femme Fatale (really called the Photuris) firefly? These are female fireflies that fake the attraction response. They are not interested in mating. They lure the male by flashing like a common firefly and then they attack and kill and eat the male. When they eat the poor unsuspecting male, they ingest a steroid that’s a great deterant to their own enemies, including jumping spiders. Is that very cool to a seven-year-old or what?
It can’t be lost on us that this is a great Bible time lesson out in the back yard for kids. The lure of the femme fatale firefly is fake. Just like the devil. He promises an instant heaven and delivers an eternal hell. He is the father of lies (John 8:44). He acts like he’s going to befriend. He pulls us to something that looks fun, even life sustaining. We respond with naivety, just like Eve did, in the garden. We are unaware of the deadly proposition that is in front of us.
The devil then sucks the spiritual life from us, selfishly taking our strength and turning it into his own selfish and deceitful pleasures and wiles. The devil, like the femme fatale, is on steroids in our world today, ruling over the kingdom of darkness (Revelation 16:10), sucking the life and light out of those who follow him. He is devouring all he can attract by deceit and then torture. He seeks whom he may devour (1Peter 5:8). When we are attracted by the devil, it ends in death and the devil cares no more for the spiritual carnage than does the Femme Fatale.
Beware the Femme Fatale as you try to let your little light shine (Matthew 5:16).
Don’t necessarily let your four year-old (the one who cries when you throw a dead blackbird, from your old log cabin, into the trash can)–I say, don’t let her fall asleep watching a Femme Fatale with her prey. And finally, don’t let your four-year-old hunt frogs near the lily-pad fountain with your good flashlight. There may, in that case, be another kind of moving light in the gardens. And if you do, don’t let the four-year-old try to fish the light back out.
And finally, don’t let your four-year-old hunt frogs near the lily-pad fountain with your good flashlight. There may be another kind of moving light in the gardens. And if you do, don’t let the four-year-old try to fish the light back out. (She didn’t fall but she surely almost did. And the flashlight did fall in.)