A New Creation
Just last week I sent an e-mail anniversary card featuring butterflies to one of my close friends in Nigeria. His response? “Thank you for the beautiful card. Always butterflies!” I could just hear him laughing. So, what is it about me and butterflies. It began during my first years of teaching when a couple of my friends and I discovered a beautiful picture book for adults, HOPE FOR THE FLOWERS, by Trina Paulus, telling a simple tale about Stripe and Yellow, two caterpillars who wonder about the meaning of life until they discover they can spin a cocoon and become a butterfly. In doing so they bless the earth with beauty and new life—and lots of flowers. In addition to her imaginative story, her illustrations are glorious. Her story rang true in my heart and powerfully captured for me the truth of the Gospel as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” Now, for me, that captures perfectly the reality of what God does for us when we are reborn in Christ. So, this week, as Spring begins and as Easter approaches, I just want to meditate on God’s remarkable parable of redemption, resurrection and regeneration. In Him we are, indeed, new creatures.
Let’s consider a few facts about how perfectly the creator of all things designed the butterfly to delight and spread beauty throughout the Earth. Here are some fascinating facts about butterflies found on the insectlore.com website.
1. Butterflies bless with their presence all of the continents, except Antarctica, with their unique loveliness. What a blessing to almost all the earth!
2. Butterflies “love” colors and can see and process nine colors, while people can only process three. They are attracted to red, yellow, white, purple, pink and orange flowers. God equipped butterflies to seek and find the nectar they need to survive.
3. Butterflies drink only liquid. They have a proboscis so they can drink the nectar of flowers. They also love the juice of fruits and even salt and minerals they drink from mud puddles. I always wondered why when I saw a bunch of beautiful butterflies in the mud!
4. Butterflies can fly from five to twelve miles per hour, and some even fly as fast as thirty miles per hour. Monarchs can travel from Canada all the way to the forests of Mexico. True story: I was once teaching at Baptist High School in Jos, Nigeria, and looked out of the window to see a very extensive stream of beautiful butterflies flying toward who knows where. Wow! Talking about a welcome distraction from a grammar lesson!
So, our Creator knew just what He had in mind when He created the Butterfly; so He created them so that He has meticulously built into their being everything they need to bless people all over the world.
John 20:5-7
And stooping to look in, he saw linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him and went into the tomb,
He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus.
When a butterfly emerges fully formed and ready to fly, the chrysalis is left empty, just as Jesus’ burial cloths were left empty after His glorious resurrection. Even so, He resurrects us and recreates us when we surrender our hearts, souls, minds and bodies completely unto Him. We are, indeed new creatures, reflecting His glory.
I believe God’s Spirit draws many of our hearts to butterflies because they so remarkably, spiritually and inspirationally act out one of God’s most beautiful parables. Caterpillars begin their lives with nothing spectacular about them. They scurry along the ground on their way from one green leaf to another. They grow fatter and bigger until an irresistible sensation draws them as they seek a secured stem on a bush or in a tree. There they discover they have within themselves the ability to spin a silk cocoon, inside which they sleep while the Creator transforms and reshapes them. They emerge from their chrysalis, no longer a worm, but rather, as a bright new creature proclaiming with every flutter of the wings the miracle God has worked. They are reborn from their chrysalis dust of the earth as they are delivered into the heavens. Now, they fly resplendent with beautiful wings painted gloriously to reflect the Lord Jesus Himself’s resurrection promise and love. God makes every butterfly and every reborn human soul a unique illustration for His redemptive purpose. He looks to each of us to find His eternal purpose for our hearts and souls and bodies as we become blissfully His. Amen!
FROM THE HANDS OF GOD:
OUR OWN METAMORPHOSIS
OUR OWN METAMORPHOSIS
Would you imagine with me if only you could,
walking outside on a warm springtime day
enjoying the breezes caressing your face
as they rain down tiny, tiny white blossoms?
And you’re enjoying the chattering chirping
while tiny birds and their mates seek out the
straw and the stems for constructing their nests
for the first of the season’s pastel dyed eggs.
And you can’t help but look up to the heavens,
give praise to Him who paints every beauty
so vivid before you, your heart beats with wonder
before Him as you praise Him, your Maker.
And to your delight a butterfly swarm flutters
and then lands on your daisies, each one as if
they are lifting their magnificent wings in praise
as your soul rejoices in God’s mercy and His grace.
He speaks Gospel truth through all of this beauty—
each of these wonders so marvelous, so lovely;
like them we’re born, it seems, for crawling the ground
like caterpillars awaiting their own metamorphosis.
You and I live caught up in the midst of our own ways
with no hope of escaping from crawling in the dust
we were made from, we so need to be changed fully—
permanently set free from our earth-bound, nature fallen.
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, came among us
to open our eyes to God’s glory above and His
wonder—then He lay down His life and rose up
victorious, offering us our own metamorphosis.
M.S. (March 2025)
What a delight!
What a reborn miracle!
Right there on my fingertip!
Praise the Lordd!
I WONDER IF I COULD FOLLOW A BUTTERFLY
I wonder if I could follow a butterfly some day
from flower to flower from blossom to blossom
luxuriating in all of the sensations they feel
as they flutter along while they are dancing
upon one breeze and then another in the midst
of God’s glory transcendent in flowering trees,
in the greenest, the freshest of grasses and
wildflower patches scattered around on the ground—
I wonder if I could somehow comprehend their own
pleasure in gathering the nectar while pausing
for just one instant on one brilliant flower while
fanning their wings as a part of God’s spectacle
luxuriating in the beauty of His glory refreshing
and blessing as is His perfect nature—I wonder
if in their being they are able to marvel in all such
splendor and beauty and loveliness and glory.
M.S. (March 2025)
So, got it now? Why the butterfly all the time for so many years? Let’s summarize: In saving me from my sin, Jesus has given me a brand new birth. He has transformed me. I am no longer a sinful, earthbound, creature eating the dust as I scurry from one green leaf to another. His Spirit living in me took me inside the cocoon and miraculously made me a brand new creature—no longer a caterpillar, but now a butterfly, free to fly as His breezes lead me to enjoy the sweetest of nectars among His blossoms. And He uses my joy to bring Him glory and spread from one meadow to another His own glorious flowers. How beautiful and how adventuresome He makes all my life until one day He brings about my ultimate metamorphosis and sets me finally, fully free in Heaven.
EVERYDAY! ALL MY LIFE,
ALL MY HEART, ALL ALL MY SOUL, ALL MY MIND, ALL MY STRENGTH:
IT’S ALL ABOUT JESUS!
