Some caterpillars are quite beautiful, but when all is said and done, even the most interesting and beautiful of them is little more than a glorified worm. Then one day something in them responds to the intention of their Creator. They wrap themselves in a cocoon, essentially killing themselves in response to the call. No, you say, they aren't killing themselves. They are entering transformation. They are becoming something new, different, better. They are being made a butterfly.
That is true. It is also true that they are no longer caterpillars. The caterpillar is dead. What once was is no longer. They may not be completely a butterfly until they emerge from the cocoon, but no matter what happens, they will never be a caterpillar again.
We Christians are much like the cocooned butterfly in the making. We are not yet what we will be in all the glory and splendor and ability to fly, but we will never be the worms we were before again. It's dark in the cocoon. We can't see everything. Sometimes there's growing pains. Sometimes there's dying pains. We are literally changing from one creature into another, and the two don't even look anything alike. Growth into the new means death of the old. They aren't compatible. The transition can be painful at times, especially so if we fight the process and try to live as though we were still caterpillars. We aren't.
Today let us remember that while we may not yet be fully transformed into the glorious child of the King we are becoming, we are no longer the child of sin we were born. We have been born into something new, something different. Let us remember if it feels uncomfortable or a little scary in the tightness and the dark, that something beautiful is happening inside. Let us look forward with expectation and joy at the colors our wings will display as we fly.
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