Ten minutes to write. Less time to read.

They’re God’s flashlights or Tinkerbell’s dearest friends. So why do children capture them and put them in jars? On the face of it, it seems cruel.

But I think it’s because lightning bugs – also known as June bugs because they appear most prolifically in June – are ephemeral and fleeting. So it’s important to catch them and hold them dear. It’s about cherishing and not about imprisoning.

Lightning bugs surround our house every June, emitting their bright signals and flitting from here to there. It’s an enchanting thing. We sit on the deck or the patio and are surrounded by little lights, some in front of our noses and others in the flowerbeds.

While Earl and I don’t have any children of the age where jars of Junebugs beckon, we still have the ardor it takes to admire both the lightning bugs and their pursuers. At this age, we imagine what it would be like to have little ones romping on the lawn and chasing the lightning bugs at the same time that we’re admiring the bugs for their incandescence and thanking them for making their annual appearance.