Guest Post
Butterflies are first caterpillars, but caterpillars are purposefully created to be butterflies...This is the same for us, we were created to be free but we were captive first! Our lives and that of butterflies are so similar. Once caterpillars realise they have wings to fly they are free but they are not born free! Rather through a process, they transform into these beautiful free beings!
Let’s consider the well known children’s book ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’. Firstly the caterpillar comes out of its egg hungry. We were born to be filled with Jesus; although born into sin we hunger for salvation. As the book progresses we notice the caterpillar searches far and wide for something, anything, to satisfy his hunger.
1. 1 apple, 2 pears, 3 plums, 4 strawberries, 5 oranges
2. Chocolate cake, ice cream, pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, cupcake, slice of watermelon
3. A single leaf
As humans we search for quick fixes and tend to look to things to satisfy us but a void still remains. Notice that the caterpillar first eats the ‘good stuff’ i.e. fruits, we also can look to people, money and our title to satisfy our longing and this may not seem remotely sinful or bad but they are not designed to restore us.
Then the caterpillar turns to ‘junk’ and after ends up with a stomach ache? You would think that after eating so much you would be full and satisfied right? Not in this case. The day after, we see a shift, the caterpillar decides to eat a leaf (food more suited to a caterpillar), and guess what after this he wasn’t hungry anymore (see where I’m going with this...). As Christians we need to be able to go to the right person to fill our hunger, fill the void, the emptiness! This person is God and once you have your ‘God dose’ you will be oh so full (just like some of us on Christmas day :p). John 6: 35 explicitly states this!
After the caterpillar became full he retreated into his shell and two weeks later sprung out as a beautiful butterfly! Freedom!..But it was only after he got the dose of the right food! Revelation 3:20 simply says Gods stands at our door and politely knocks, if we open He will come and eat with us, and us eat with him (paraphrased). He’s the good stuff!
In addition, turning into a butterfly means the caterpillar’s existence is totally destroyed - as a butterfly is built anew! This is the same for us; God uses our past as building blocks to bring us up while satan wants to use it to bring us down! But what satan doesn’t realise is that without the caterpillar in its state there would be no butterfly.
It’s important to highlight that butterflies and caterpillars have different diets; a butterfly cannot eat what it used to eat when it was a caterpillar and vice versa. When you are a butterfly and know freedom do you really want to go back and eat what you ate as a caterpillar? It may be tempting but you realise there is something better.
Let people see you soar, fly over mountains - and yes mountains exists - but remember you are a butterfly made to fly and you have the strength and capability to do so!
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