the butterfly effect

When I went on a mission trip to Honduras this summer, each person on the trip was given the task to find or write a devotional to give before or after our work for the day. I decided to write mine about the analogy of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly and us accepting Christ, so I thought i’d share it with you!

So recently I came across the quote:  “How does one become a butterfly?” she asked. “You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” by trina Paulus and it made me think—- our walk with Christ is like the metamorphosis that a butterfly goes through. Now I sound crazy but hear me out… to pursue God is to become a butterfly, to spread your wings and go into unchartered territory, and it can be scary. 

When you’re a caterpillar, you can eat the leaves on the ground and everything you need to survive is right in front of you. But You’re also stuck where you are, you can move, just not very far. When we were not followers of Christ, we had what we needed to get by, but we were stuck, whether that be by never being fulfilled, being stuck with the wrong people, or being stuck in life not knowing what your next step needed to be. 

When the caterpillar goes into its cocoon it completely transforms and cannot be recognized as the same creature. The caterpillar’s old body died and a new body was formed within the chrysalis. When we take that step to follow Christ, we embark on the chrysalis stage, it’s a tough process but when we become christians, we are unrecognizable from who we were before. When we’re saved, our old body, metaphorically, dies and we are spiritually born again. 

When the butterfly emerges from the cocoon, it can fly and be airborne, but this comes with some hurdles to overcome. The air affects the butterfly way more than it did before, the butterfly has to fly to find food, and it can be lonely because it is not with its caterpillar friends anymore. Whenever we become Christ followers, the world and satan try to affect us more than before, we have to search for Godly things to fill our lives with instead of earthly things, and we sometimes lose friends over this. 

In Romans 12:2 it says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” We are called to not conform to this world, to not give into temptations that are all around us. Once you become a butterfly, it’s not all pretty wings and pretty flowers, but it’s oh so worth it. 

It seems glamorous, to metamorphosis from earthly caterpillar to airbound butterfly, but as we all know, it’s not always easy. Though you know you wouldn’t trade your wings to go back to crawling along the ground, staying afloat is hard work. But I’d rather risk it all in the pursuit of Christ than to stay “safely” rooted in the world. In John 16:33 it says: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Jesus tells us that he will give us peace even though the world will give us tribulation. When we look back on our times as a caterpillar, we can see we had a totally different life. Easier? Yes. More fulfilling? No. Extraordinary? No. Lonely? Yes. I think I’ll stick with being a butterfly.

Your Sister in Christ,
Madeline