On a rare midweek occasion, I happened to turn on the tele to see David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet.  The Tundra Moth is about the size of a little finger. For five months of the year, it hibernates in -50’c temperatures, and amazingly, survives. During this time, the moth’s heart stops, its blood freezes and its tiny muscles stiffen with ice.  Yet at the end of every winter, it thaws out, revives and then proceeds to spend the next 7 months eating.

The moth does this for a whole 14 years. Apparently it takes that long for the moth to consume enough food to create the energy needed for the real reason it is on earth. The two months when it finally changes into a moth, breeds, lays eggs and then dies.  Fourteen years as a caterpillar. Two months as a moth.

The analogies you could draw from this and the Christian life are immense.  But as I was watching this feat unfold before me, I just couldn’t help but think about how the whole existence of this moth was to glorify God.  It has been created by him, to endure and survive some incredible experiences, so that for just a brief period in its life, it could produce another moth who would then do the same thing.  The Psalmist cries, “Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord”.

Ravi Zacharias says that when people lose their child-like wonderment, we become idolatrous and arrogant.  Everyday God makes the same thing to happen again and again. The sun rises, it rains, plants grow, there is new life. He never seems to grow tired of the cycle he has created, because he created it for his pleasure, and to glorify himself.

The world at the moment seems to be in dire straits.  A large part of this must be because we have forgotten that we are here to glorify God. In fact in most cases, we simply ignore him. The consequences of going it alone are, I think, devastating.

But as Christians, we need to understand that Christ came to earth to glorify his Father. Philippians 2 tells us of the great condescension of Christ. He lived simply for the will of his Father. It is imperative as the church, that we recognise that we are to do the same. We are created for his pleasure and we are to live to glorify him if we are to stand with him at the end of time.

Michael Butler