So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:36 ESV
The process of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly is one of the most dramatic natural phenomena that I know. The poor caterpillar only knows one world….climbing on limbs and stems eating leaves. Caterpillars are slow and are significantly susceptible to being eaten by other prey, like birds.
Yet, at some point, the earth-bound insect dies, dissolves into a glob of enzymes and proteins, and emerges as a new creation.
Sound familiar?
As followers of Jesus, our story is eerily similar.
We are born as caterpillars and are changed into butterflies the moment we accept Jesus’ work on the cross as payment of our sin and place our life in His hands. We come into the world separated from the Lord spiritually which makes us pretty lowly and vulnerable creatures, like the caterpillar.
When we take the step of faith – believing and trusting in Jesus for our salvation – we don’t become better caterpillars….or caterpillars with wings….we become an entirely new being.
However, for many of us, even though we have wings we still act & think of ourselves as caterpillars “just trying to get by”. Due to sins we commit, addictions and memories of our past life failures (as caterpillars), we remain stuck on limbs, branches and leaves…our past defining our present potential.
As a follower of Christ, the enemy Satan hates you. He despises you. He hates your guts.
He’ll do anything to slow or stop your spiritual growth. He works aggressively to convince you that you’re a disaster, failure, shameful, defeated and useless in any way.
He wants us to believe his lie that your past sins and your past life as a “sinner” defines who you are today. That is a lie from the pit of hell. He wants us to measure ourselves each day to perfection and then heap shame into our mind for not measuring up.
As butterflies we live in another world altogether. We live in the sky. We fly. We are above the ground. We eat a different food. In fact, butterflies don’t really “eat” food. They drink nector from flowers through a straw built into their heads.
We too should drink nectar, the water of life. Jesus. He is our source. He is our energy. He is our life. We can fly, we can see the world from spiritual perspectives unlike the caterpillar. Never allow your past, your current sin or your old life define you. What you are is not what you do or have done but it’s whose you are. You belong to the Father. You are a child of a majestic King. You are beloved. You are in the family.
Thank the Lord today for your new life. Join me today in thanking Him for allowing you and me to fly and drink from the true life source.
God’s Word
Even more beautiful than the transformation of the butterfly are the words of scripture that speak to the immeasurable majesty, grace and love of God to transform you and me as found in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ESV
