I love butterflies! I surround myself with them. A resident came to see me one day and she noticed the butterflies all around my office. She exclaimed, “You really like butterflies! I told her that I did and shared my testimony of “why I love butterflies.”
Biology was one of my favorite subjects in high school. One day we studied the metamorphosis of butterflies. I didn’t know it at the time, but my heavenly Father used a natural and beautiful transformation to teach me about the spiritual journey I would one day embark upon.
Allow me to take you to school for one brief moment, metamorphosis is the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages. Wikipedia states it’s the transformation of an insect or amphibian, but I beg to differ because the bible tells us that as believers, we must also be transformed.
Romans 12:2 “Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will form you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” (NLT)
The Webster dictionary gives the definition of metamorphosis as a change of physical form, structure, or substance by supernatural means. That sure sound like Romans 12:2 and that is what happened to me. I grew up feeling ugly and unwanted and had a negative outlook on everything. I also had low self-esteem and was suicidal.
My transformation began when I stopped seeing myself as a lowly being crawling along the ground of this world and accepted the love of my Father. I chose to believe what the bible said about me. For years, I went through a spiritual metamorphosis and then my breakthrough came through if you know what I mean.
The Chrysalis stage is the most difficult stage in transformation because a struggle must take place in order for the adult butterfly to break free of the cocoon. Christians see struggle as a form of punishment from God or think the devil is messing in their lives. Sometimes the struggle we face is part of the process we must go through in order to become the beautiful being God created us to become.
During my Chrysalis stage, God sent prophets, teachers and pastors to speak into my life. Some came from Africa to tell me how much God loved me and that I was beautiful to Him, some came from London to tell me God has a great purpose for my life and that I can never fit in with the status quo. Others some came from my own neighborhood and the message was, being unique is not a bad thing and it is not a curse. I was told to embrace my uniqueness and believe that God loves me with an everlasting love because He chooses to, period!
Now whenever I see a caterpillar I try to imagine what it will become. In addition, when I see a struggling Christian, I try to imagine what he/she will become.
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