Caterpillar to Butterfly

It was beautiful. She couldn’t stop looking at the butterfly as it floated above her on wings like black satin edged in cobalt blue. Her outward gaze was guided inward to reflect on its transformation. Who’d believe this beautiful butterfly was once a caterpillar?

As we roll into a new year let’s pull away from the world to reflect. Let’s take our outward gaze on the celebration and significance of Jesus’ birth – born to die to redeem us—and turn to reflect on our transformation. Isn’t the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly like the transformation of a child of the world to a child of God?

Celebrate Your New Birth

“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” John 2: 5-6

Jesus teaches that we must be born again in the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. Only with this second birth – do we become a child of God—and then the transformation begins.

The New Testament reveals Spirit’s transformative work in God’s children. We need to look no further than Jesus’ disciples. These ordinary men were transformed to apostles. All were transformed to conform to the likeness of Christ – a child of God—and we go through the same transformation.

Once a caterpillar and a child of the world—now a butterfly as God’s child.

We’re transformed from the inside. Not through our power but the power of the Spirit.

What Transformation Looks Like

Here’s an example of a sister’s caterpillar to butterfly transformation from “Rise from the Ashes”; N.E. Nauman, 2020, pg. 30-31.

I got it. I can do it!  These were the confident words of a five-year-old at the check-out counter. She informed her mother she could carry the jug of cider to the car and her mother, not wanting to make a scene, acquiesced.  Her daughter made it out the store’s door, but the glass jug slipped from her hands and hit the sidewalk.  Glass and cider splattered everywhere.  

The young girl became a strong-willed and self-reliant woman.  But as decades of her life unfolded and she insisted, I got it. I can do it! more glass and cider splattered everywhere. 

Want to know how this young girl’s life worked out?   Let’s interview Ms. I Got It.

Interviewer:   We don’t have your current bio, Ms. I Got It, but we’ll start with what we have and let you update us.  It reads that you’re a woman who makes her own decisions.  A woman who prizes self-reliance and proudly stands as the architect of her life.  You’re now in the fourth quarter of your life and our listeners are calling in to ask, “How did your strong-will and self-reliance work for you?”           

Ms. I Got It:  Not so good.  (There’s an audible gasp from Interviewer.)  Most of my life was full of inner turmoil and unhappiness. 

In my teens I felt worthless.  Not pretty enough or smart enough or popular enough.

In my twenties I figured I’d be worth something if I married the right man, drove the right car, and lived in the right neighborhood.  I made my own decision about who to marry and that didn’t work out well. 

In my thirties and forties there were marriages and divorces because I thought I knew it all.  I believed I knew what was right for me.  Ask God?  Why would I bother asking Him when I’ve got this Lord?  Sure, I called out to Him in pain and anguish when suffering consequences for my bad choices, but daily, I thought, I’ve got this Lord.  You have more important things to do. 

In the fifth decade of my life things began to change.  I was led to a bible-based church and soon learned that I didn’t get it and couldn’t do it.  I realized Ms. I Got It wasn’t working for me. 

I began to surrender more of my life’s daily stuff and decision making to God.  Once I did this, the turmoil and unhappiness was replaced by peace, purpose to serve as a child of God and love.

I’m not going to tell you that my life is perfect because sometimes I forget to surrender things to God and sometimes suffer the consequences of living in a fallen world. But it doesn’t matter because when I surrender to God and don’t say, “I’ve got this Lord”—that makes all the difference.

Take time to reflect on what Spirit has done in you. You have a caterpillar to butterfly transformation to share with a soul crying out for hope…