Transformation

We were recently given a butterfly garden by some dear friends. (http://www.insectlore.com/) The box arrived in the mail and we excitedly opened it to find a mesh habitat as well as a small plastic container of caterpillars and all they needed to survive. The caterpillars began fairly small, maybe an inch long and not quite as big around as a pencil. Over the course of a week, they ate and ate getting bigger and fatter. Then a few days ago we noticed that several of them had moved to the top of the container and were sort of hanging there. This was the beginning of the pupal stage. A change was taking place. Yesterday, we carefully opened the plastic container, removed a liner from the lid with five chrysalids attached and pinned it to the inside mesh of the habitat where we will anxiously await the emergence of our painted lady butterflies.

As the weeks have progressed I have been more and more aware of the picture this is of our lives. I began as a caterpillar. My life was not terribly beautiful and my primary interest was me. What could I do to get ahead. What could I do to get bigger and fatter, metaphorically speaking. I grew up "knowing" God. I was raised going to church and could recite all the basic doctrine, but nothing about it changed me. I did have a few times that I resolved to change and be closer to God, and I would start out well, but somehow my life never looked much different for very long. Did you catch that? I resolved to change. A caterpillar can't change without his Creator. At one point in my life, God drew me to himself. He helped me to see that I was living a lie and to begin to recognize my utter weakness and need for Him. From the time I turned my life over to Him, which I want to add is also a daily thing, He has begun the process of transformation in my life. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for my sin, I have been transformed into a butterfly. It's only as I learn to live in the freedom of His grace and in the power of His Spirit, that I learn to fly.

There's a song by Brandon Heath called I'm Not Who I Was. The video shows people holding signs that say who they were in their bondage to sin before Christ and then those are turned around and say who they are set free by Christ. Things like - Broken... Mending, Addiction...Grateful and Thankful.  I am also thankful that I'm not who I was. I am thankful that the Lord is more interested in my character and who He created me to be than in my comfort and "happiness". Don't misunderstand me. God wants me to be joyful in all things because of His great love for me and the hope I have in Him, but "happy" is fickle because it depends on the moment and circumstance. It's not lasting. Joy is lasting. As I think about what my sign would read if I were in Brandon Heath's video, it could say many things - Living for self...Serving others, Controlling...Learning to let go, but the one I think I'd settle on is Looking for happiness...Learning to live joyfully.