I was riding my bike on a crisp Saturday morning and glanced down to check how close my front tire was to the edge of the road. I narrowly missed the caterpillar. Burnished red with a black strip running down it’s back, it had made it across the entire road with a few inches to spare and I nearly squashed it beneath my bike tire.
A ground-bound creature. Stuck in space and time with only a small view of the road ahead, the caterpillar is vulnerable in it’s slow crawl. Yet, it resolutely makes its way across a road. How many large car tires brushed passed it and moved its hair as it journeyed across? How many large truck tires narrowly missing the small creature before I brushed passed it leaving it to finish its journey? Yet, there is no other means for the caterpillar to cross a road other than that slow, steady crawl.
Consider, though, that caterpillars are really, at heart, butterflies. That is, after they go through a transformation of a miraculous sort. So, I ask myself, do I want to stay a caterpillar? Do I want to continue crawling along in life seeing everything through the small lens of anxiety? Do I want to continue being bound to the ground unable to enjoy the skies above? No! I am called to be transformed into a butterfly. I long for that miraculous transformation that allows me to be free to fly.
Since considering the caterpillar, I’ve been seeing butterflies everywhere, it seems. Tantalizing and inviting. In the crisp fall air, the beautiful creatures flutter free on the wind, being carried by the wind, using the wind to get where it needs to go. It causes me to recall a memory.
A few months ago, praying with a mentor friend, I closed my eyes and held out my hands in a chosen act of receiving in prayer. I remember being conscious of my decision to hold my hands wide open and not to hold my hands tight. As I opened my hands out I “saw”, behind closed eyes, a whole kaleidscope of small pale butterflies fly out of my hands! A promise was held in that image. Was it the freedom of surrender? The miracle of transformation in surrendering and not holding tight control within my fists?
Studying metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly with my son, we discovered that a caterpillar, as it waits in its chrysalis, can be observed to liquify in that season. It almost completely turns to a watery liquid before it it is restructured into a butterfly. Such a tantalizing image! Whoever believes in me…rivers of living water will flow from within them.(John 7:38) His Spirit.
When the creature works its way out of the chrysalis, all damp and fragile, it is not the same creature. This creature looks different, feels different, behaves different. It has emerged from a period of waiting and being still. Then it must put forth the effort to emerge from that cocoon, working its new muscles and limbs. Another hope-full image. A longing and a prayer. I pray that my present season of hard going, of being shut into dark nights and dark days, of being still with His word and His truth to tame the fears, doubts and anxieties, that THIS season WILL result in butterfly transformation in my life.
Again, His word is life and is transformational:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18. ESV (Underlined words added)
There are three truths that reveal themselves with some study of the Greek in this passage. May I share them?
First, pneuma is the Greek word for Spirit. It means wind or spirit. A butterfly really knows how to fly free on the wind doesn’t it? Somehow it is not deterred or bound by the gusts and patterns of the winds.
Second, the phrase “are being transformed” in this verse is in a present passive tense which simply means the action is being done to us! We are not doing the transformation, God is. In Greek this phrase, as it is in this verse, is metamorphometha. (Are you thinking the same word I am? A word I am sure we all learned in grade school – metamorphosis.) Metamorphometha means to change the form, transfigure (makes one think of another story!). Within this word you find meta, which means change after being with and morphoo means changing form in keeping with inner reality. So exciting for this anxious heart to put these pieces together. The words “are being transformed” is a promise of being so thoroughly changed, when I am with my Jesus, that even my outward appearance will reflect the change in my heart! The anxiety on my face will be gone!
Third, it is in contemplating the Lord’s glory with an unveiled or unconcealed face that we are transformed. When we contemplate the Lord, we behold HIM, not the anxieties and challenges. This beholding is really a reflecting, as in a mirror, who He is in us. This is the transformation which perhaps can only happen when we lay bare all that we are and who we are before Him. Look at Him only and let Him be reflected in our hearts and face, let Him transform.
So, now I see butterflies. Often close to my feet as they flit from plant to plant on the wind. I can’t miss them. A ray of love from the Father briefly piercing the blanket of dark anxiety around my heart. It raises my head from just seeing the hard, dreary ground to seeing blue sky and Him. His promises and purposes for me. His hope of a promise.
FURTHER STUDY:
“Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. ESV
There are three truths that reveal themselves with some study of the Greek in this passage. Again, truths hiding beneath the surface!
1. Pneuma is the Greek word for Spirit. It means wind or spirit. A butterfly really knows how to fly on the wind doesn’t it?!
2. The phrase “are being transformed” in this verse is in a present passive tense which means the action is being done to us! We are not doing the transformation. God is. In Greek this phrase, as it is in this verse, is metamorphometha. Did you see it?! Metamorphosis? Metamorphometha means to change the form, transfigure (makes one think of another story!). Meta means change after being with and morphoo means changing form in keeping with inner reality. It is a promise of being so thoroughly changed, when I am with my Jesus, that even my outward appearance will reflect the change in my heart! The anxiety, fears, doubts that I might wear on my face will be gone!
3. It is in contemplating the Lord’s glory with an unveiled or unconcealed face that we are transformed. When we behold HIM, not the questions, doubts, fears and challenges the transformation happens. Perhaps it’s when I lay bare all that I am and who I am before Him I am able to behold Him?
So, now I see butterflies. Often close to my feet as they flit from plant to plant on the wind. I can’t miss them. A ray of love and hope from the Father briefly piercing that infrequent blanket of dark anxiety around my heart. It raises my head from just seeing the hard, dreary ground to seeing blue sky and Him. His promises and purposes for me. His hope of a promise.
