Dragonflies – Fall 2020
Editor’s Note: Welcome to our Fall 2020 submissions cycle! Today we have a beautiful devotional from our friend Sheila Lloyd. Her bio is down below if you don’t remember her!
We live in a beautiful neighborhood hemmed in by the river on one side and wooded mountain foothills on the other. The route of my usual walk passes through quiet streets lined with volunteer tricklings of water from some elevated stream through ditches filled with leaves from last fall. Frogs jump as my foot falls get closer, and I suddenly stop to gaze at a dragonfly poised and still. Amazingly it remains in place long enough for me to bend down and take a closer look… It is mainly browns, and its four wings are composed of infantisimaly small membranes and abstract chestnut splotches. This design is completely different than the last dragonfly I saw on my walk.
And I began pondering God’s creation. It’s not as though he said, “Today I’m going to work on dragonfly design. I will create 85 different species.” ….OK, I confess, I pulled that number 85 out of the air thinking that that was quite a few different species of dragonflies! Then I googled the question. There are 5000 different species of dragonflies! Check it out for yourself! Just let your head wrap around that for a moment!
Here’s the thing that really got me yesterday: the Lord created them with a word. One breath. A fraction of a second. In the Bible Genesis 1 states that all of creation, everything that exists, was created in six days by the God of the universe. Many do not believe this. I believe it!
Genesis 1:20, Day 5 of the Creation Project God said
“Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.”
On day six, Genesis 1:24, God said,
“Let land produce living creatures according to their kinds…”.
So dragonflies would’ve been included in one of those days.
My mind went here… If someone gave you a task to come up with 5000 different species of dragonflies, how much time would you need for that? How much brain power would that take? How many sketchbooks would you fill with potential designs of wings? The Lord God Almighty spoke and 5000 species of dragonflies existed. It gives evidence for the capacity of his mind and power and creativity. And it was instantly perfect! We have ideas and try to carry them out but seldom are they flawless the first time! The Lord didn’t even have to think it in detail; it just was done.
Now, follow the train of thought a little farther… On day six He spent exorbitantly more time, it seems, creating mankind. He did not just speak Adam into existence. Genesis 1:26 says, then God said,
“Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Besides the plural reference (evidence for the Trinity; see also 1:1-2), God got his hands dirty, so to speak, forming Adam. Genesis 2:7 says
“The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground,”
and then, get this!
“and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
The first human was formed by the hand of God and received the very breath of God as its source for life.
Of course we read later in Genesis 1:19-23 why and how God made woman.
I was struck and humbled that a God Who could speak into existence 5000 species of dragonflies as only one minuscule aspect of 48 hours of birthing the universe would choose to spend time and touch and breath creating a being which bears his likeness.
Next, my mind went to Psalm 8:3-5 which says,
“When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”
Then, consider Romans 1…
“We know there is a Creator, why? Because there is a creation!”
If you have never heard of Ray Comfort, look him up on YouTube. That is one of his main lines.
My response…worship! As a friend commented who read the above, “And to think, we can be in an intimate, personal relationship with our Creator because of His desire and provision thru Christ…truly amazing and yes, worship!” Yes indeed!
Sheila Lloyd is learning to live in freedom through Jesus Christ! Her vocational life has included teaching private piano lessons, writing, acting in and producing musical dramas, spearheading women’s retreats and other ministry outreach events, composing music, leading worship across the country, teaching Bible studies and mentoring. Shelia has two grown sons, one of whom has special needs. She has been married to her high school sweetheart, Brian, since 1990. The couple experienced growth on the cutting edge of faith as Brian suffered a massive rehabilitating stroke in 2014. They published a book sharing God‘s powerful hand in the situation titled, It’s OK! I Had a Stroke. It was released on Amazon and Barnes and Noble May 2019. Website here. The couple currently shepherds a storefront church in Woodstock, VA.
