"If anyone be in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has gone; the new has come!"
I just spent the last 15 minutes watching a series of photos that picture the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. It's fantastic!
Did you know:
- Even though nobody sees the egg, it is a thing of beauty in itself, looking like tatted lace?
- The monarch caterpillar's first meal is its own eggshell?
- A monarch caterpillar sheds its skin four times before it turns into a pupa?
- The caterpillar hooks itself into an anchor and turns itself upside down to be changed?
- The old skin, the markings and all that identified it as a monarch caterpillar disappear as it sheds its final trappings of the earth-bound life left behind?
- The pupa is NOT a coating the monarch caterpillar puts on itself, but the revelation of the grown larva's insides?- The skin of the pupa becomes more and more transparent as the transformation takes place on the inside, allowing us to see the colors of the wings before it ever emerges?
- The emerging butterfly grasps the pupa's transparent skin on the way out, so that it turns right side up when the rest of the body comes out?
- There is an excess of fluid in the body of the new monarch and this fluid is pumped out into the veins in its wings, making them stiff enough to fly?
The changes all take such a long time - weeks - if we were to do nothing but watch them in real life. Fortunately we have the benefit of time-lapse and of sequential photographs. Even with that, sometimes it seems as though nothing were happening. But it does. And it's miraculous.
The butterfly's process mirrors the fundamental shift in our spiritual beings, a shift that takes place on a spiritual level when we are honest, open, and willing to embrace the changes that God has planned for us when we turn our will and our lives over to His care. The changes are invisible at first, but no less miraculous. Most happen in obscurity, unseen by anyone, and (if you hadn't noticed) they happen from the inside out: ALL of them. That's a lesson in itself. External stuff brings about no lasting change and may even hinder (or kill) the life that Christ died to give us. But the inner work He does is worth the time it takes to let happen naturally. It can't be forced; it happens when it happens. It's not human effort; it's a divine and sovereign work.
That way, only God gets the applause.
If you have about 15 minutes, check out this link to watch the butterfly's process for yourself:
http://vimeo.com/7203408
I just spent the last 15 minutes watching a series of photos that picture the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. It's fantastic!
Did you know:
- Even though nobody sees the egg, it is a thing of beauty in itself, looking like tatted lace?
- The monarch caterpillar's first meal is its own eggshell?
- A monarch caterpillar sheds its skin four times before it turns into a pupa?
- The caterpillar hooks itself into an anchor and turns itself upside down to be changed?
- The old skin, the markings and all that identified it as a monarch caterpillar disappear as it sheds its final trappings of the earth-bound life left behind?
- The pupa is NOT a coating the monarch caterpillar puts on itself, but the revelation of the grown larva's insides?- The skin of the pupa becomes more and more transparent as the transformation takes place on the inside, allowing us to see the colors of the wings before it ever emerges?
- The emerging butterfly grasps the pupa's transparent skin on the way out, so that it turns right side up when the rest of the body comes out?
- There is an excess of fluid in the body of the new monarch and this fluid is pumped out into the veins in its wings, making them stiff enough to fly?
The changes all take such a long time - weeks - if we were to do nothing but watch them in real life. Fortunately we have the benefit of time-lapse and of sequential photographs. Even with that, sometimes it seems as though nothing were happening. But it does. And it's miraculous.
The butterfly's process mirrors the fundamental shift in our spiritual beings, a shift that takes place on a spiritual level when we are honest, open, and willing to embrace the changes that God has planned for us when we turn our will and our lives over to His care. The changes are invisible at first, but no less miraculous. Most happen in obscurity, unseen by anyone, and (if you hadn't noticed) they happen from the inside out: ALL of them. That's a lesson in itself. External stuff brings about no lasting change and may even hinder (or kill) the life that Christ died to give us. But the inner work He does is worth the time it takes to let happen naturally. It can't be forced; it happens when it happens. It's not human effort; it's a divine and sovereign work.
That way, only God gets the applause.
If you have about 15 minutes, check out this link to watch the butterfly's process for yourself:
http://vimeo.com/7203408
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