If you are fortunate to have a garden, however large or small, during these times of pandemic, you have probably spent more time in it than usual. You may have noticed the creatures that share your garden with you, who either have made it their home, or are passing visitors. Observing these creatures, their habits and the way they live, can, I believe give us an insight into the nature of God and may enable us to reflect on our response to Him and to one another.
‘BUTTERFLIES’
A lot more welcome and colourful than the previous subject in this series (slugs and snails, if you remember!). However, to welcome the colourful, attractive butterfly that we so admire and are fascinated to watch on a summer’s day feeding from our specially chosen butterfly attracting plants, there is a not so welcome – to gardeners, stage – to get through first – the caterpillar stage. To become a butterfly, a caterpillar has to eat and eat and eat! Which is fine, unless it is our cabbages! Most caterpillars undergo four ‘moults’ before they get to the chrysalis stage, bursting out of their old skins, and getting used to new ones – four times, before wrapping themselves in a silky cocoon where the most amazing transformation takes place. But you will know all of this if you have read ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ by Eric Carle.
During the first lockdown, my daughter bought a ‘butterfly kit’ for her children to watch pupae change into butterflies. After a few weeks, 3 small tortoiseshell butterflies emerged, and with our lockdown eased at the time, I was able to be with them for the great ‘unlocking’. It felt quite emotional opening the little door to their ’cage’, and setting them free. They soared into the sky, quickly becoming tiny specks and disappearing over the roof. I hoped that they would feed and find mates, lay eggs, and start the cycle all over again.
Watching and waiting for a butterfly to emerge from their chrysalis, seems like observing a new creation, so different is the butterfly from the caterpillar, and yet they are intrinsically the same. For a start, the first 3 pairs of legs of the caterpillar become the 6 legs of the fully grown butterfly.
Paul writes to the people of Corinth, that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) The wonderful thing about being in Christ, is that he takes us as we are – the raw material – and bit by bit transforms us into his likeness. Yes, we can have a dramatic conversion, or be a cradle-Christian, but Christ’s work in us is never done. The branch grows on the Vine, the lump of clay is moulded by God’s hands, the caterpillar grows a new skin – and then the wonderful day when the transformation is complete, and we are free indeed.
The chance to see a butterfly this year in our gardens is fading, but if you do, think about what stage you are at in the process of becoming a new creation in your life’s journey with Christ.