{"id":34149,"date":"2025-05-16T14:58:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hidden-rhythm-of-cicadas\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T14:58:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T14:58:00","slug":"hidden-rhythm-of-cicadas","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hidden-rhythm-of-cicadas\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hidden Rhythm of Cicadas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every 13- or 17-years a remarkable event of nature happens &#8211; cicadas emerge from more than a decade underground. How do they keep track of time? This is one of the &ldquo;seven biological wonders of the world,&rdquo; according to John Cooley, a biologist at the University of Connecticut.<\/p>\n\n<p>&ldquo;Seventeen [years] is just an inordinately long time to keep track of anything,&rdquo; adds John Lill, an insect ecologist at George Washington University. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t keep track of five years let alone 17, myself&mdash;so how an insect does it is pretty remarkable.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>During their long stint underground, the insects sip at xylem sap, the nutrient-poor but water-rich liquid that moves from a tree&rsquo;s root tips up to its canopy. Each year as a tree buds and blossoms, its xylem is briefly richer in amino acids, leading one team of researchers to call it &ldquo;spring elixir.&rdquo; Cicadas appear to count each flush of spring elixir.<\/p>\n\n<p>Another researcher said, &ldquo;We know that&rsquo;s what they count. Where they&rsquo;re putting their little chalk marks on the wall, we don&rsquo;t know. We really don&rsquo;t understand how they&rsquo;re keeping track of it.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angle: <\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>God&rsquo;s timetable is even more mysterious. James tells us to &ldquo;be patient until the coming of the Lord&rdquo; (Jam. 5:7) Peter adds, &ldquo;A day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises&rdquo; (2 Pet 3:8-9). God&rsquo;s timetable is higher than ours so we must trust in Him and his perfect timing. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3621,3759,3760,3934,4141,4526,4611,4903,5027,5159,5195,5196,5204],"tax_ctp_topics":[397],"class_list":["post-34149","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-denominations","tax_ctp_tags-dependence","tax_ctp_tags-faith-circumstances","tax_ctp_tags-help-from-god","tax_ctp_tags-nature","tax_ctp_tags-patience","tax_ctp_tags-security-in-god","tax_ctp_tags-sovereignty-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-time","tax_ctp_tags-trust","tax_ctp_tags-trusting-god","tax_ctp_tags-uncertainty"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Hidden Rhythm of Cicadas - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/hidden-rhythm-of-cicadas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Hidden Rhythm of Cicadas - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every 13- or 17-years a remarkable event of nature happens &#8211; cicadas emerge from more than a decade underground. 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