The Birth of a Butterfly

- August 25, 2018

My children were born in a small town.
Our backyard was an empty field leading to a small creek.
They thrived on playing outdoors and catching all kinds of bugs.
Having three brothers, my daughter always joined in their shenanigans.

Knowing how much fun it was to find a caterpillar on the ubiquitous milkweeds in the field,
I showed them how to keep them alive and constantly fed so they could grow.
They even had special jars for each kind of critter they watched.

We were fortunate to be able to see the transformation more than once.
It almost became a summer tradition.

The caterpillars would eat, and eat, and eat,
until it was time to make a chrysalis.
It was a fascinating, albeit a little too slow for the busy crew.
The final, shining green and gold chrysalis was a beauty all its own.

Then we waited.

Daily, they would check on the little, hanging green marvel.

Ten days is a long time to wait for a child, but soon they were rewarded for their patience.
The chrysalis wasn't green any longer, but clear.

I don't recall who saw it first, but we were all there to watch the amazing surprise!

The funny striped caterpillar was nowhere to be found, instead they saw the birth of a butterfly.

Oh, how it struggled to get out of it's dry shell.
It wanted to be free so badly.

The brand new butterfly is wet, as it slowly works it way out of it's old home.
It needs to sit patiently and dry after the long, difficult emergence.

One of our butterflies, even though I had warned them not to,
had a "little help" from curious hands.
Someone had opened the tough shell, to let the butterfly out faster.

As the fresh Monarch dries, it will open and close it's wings to speed the drying process.

But the one that had "help" couldn't open them properly.
The wings were stuck together and deformed.
They did eventually dry enough to straighten out a bit more.
This butterfly was going to have a difficult time of flying high.

Much like a Monarch, we as humans go through many changes in life.

Most changes are by choice, and yet, there are some we have no control over.

If we have made poor choices, we may end up like that deformed butterfly.
The price of going about things the wrong way, may take us places we regret.

We become impatient, like the story of the man who could wish his life away
faster by pulling a golden thread.
And like that man discovered, the journey is your life.

Some of those changes on the journey of our life can be good.

Others, are oh...so painful and long.
It seems like the end will never come.

We become broken and tired.
Sometimes, too tired to go on.

I haven't had the joy of finding any caterpillars for many years.

Much like my life journey, I keep finding broken wings instead.

But I am learning, once more, to look to the Creator of this journey -
when I feel it becoming so hard to bear.

He can take what is broken and make something new.

That sounds even more promising than watching the birth of a butterfly.