Yesterday morning I was out for a walk and there it was, crossing the dirt road in front of me. It was a wooly worm, as we used to called them when I was little, better known to all as a fuzzy caterpillar. He was enjoying the warm sunshine just like I was.
I’m not an entomologist and I make no claims of knowing how long it takes for the life cycle of a butterfly to go from egg to caterpillar to cocoon and emerge as a butterfly but I do know the process is one of complete transformation and the end result is beautiful.
Am I the only one who has caterpillar days? We get up in the morning and for some reason we just can’t shake that feeling of being small and insignificant. None of our friends really notice us; so we crawl into our shell (our cocoon) to hide. But while we are in there something amazing happens.
God speaks to our heart. He tells us that He has something wonderful and amazing planned for us. He tells us how much He loves us and that He wants to make us new; never again will we be just a caterpillar, crawling around in the dirt. He is transforming us and giving us wings so we can fly. His love is making us new.
“It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this.” Titus 3:3-5 MSG
We emerge from our old life beautiful. Our Father takes our old, wooly, ground-crawling life and His love makes everything new!