The Rocking Horse Fly

St. Mark's Fly, Bibio marci

It was so hot and humid on Thursday night that we had the big doors open at the Kingdom Hall. It was the hottest day of the year - of any July here in recorded history? - anyway it was worthy of a summer's day in Arabia.  And also of a Sydney summer, as it catapulted me back in time - how many years I can't now remember but a long time ago - to one of our visits to John and family.

The Hall was in the outback just a little -  in that it had very dry scrubland around it. And as the meeting progressed the air became filled with insects.  But they were insects I had never seen before, Southern Hemisphere insects.

And it made me think of those wonderful Lewis Carroll inventions, the Rocking Horse Fly, and the Bread and Butterfly.   There they all were, whirling round my head.     And also reminded me of a memory of when I was four.   I don't remember the memory itself, just remember remembering it, if that makes any sense.   I was lying in what I guess was a hayfield, on a summer's day, watching all the little insects bustle around - all very busy with something. I remember what bright colours they had, and felt as if I had got into Fairyland.

Shortly after that I began to have a fear of insects.  But for a moment there, and many years later, in  the Kingdom Hall, I saw them for the wonderful fascinating and busy creations that they are.

The problem is that everything is so disordered now. And insect and man have a lot to fear from each other.  It was not so in Eden, and it will not be when the whole earth is ruled by Kingdom of God, the heavenly government for whose coming Jesus taught us to pray


(The Fly in the photo isn't either Lewis Carroll or Antipodean, but its still a marvelous creature. And here is the info Captain Butterfly sent me to go with it:
St Mark’s fly gets its name because the adults emerge around St Mark’s Day, 25th April. It is a large, hairy black fly that is recognised by the males ‘dancing’ up-and-down flight and long dangling legs hanging down. The male has huge eyes to enable it to find a female. They live for about a week spending most of their lives in the larval stage. After mating females lay their eggs in the soil and die shortly afterwards. The larvae feed and grow over the autumn and winter, emerging as adults the following spring.)