25 MAY

THE CATERPILLAR AND THE CHRISTIAN

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

(2 Corinthians 5:17)

The life cycle of a butterfly has four stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and adult. Each stage has a different goal – for instance, caterpillars need to eat a lot, and adults need to reproduce.

A caterpillar hatches from the egg extremely small, but when it starts eating, it starts growing rapidly and expanding. Its exoskeleton (skin) does not stretch or grow, so it grows by shedding this skin several times. The transformation from caterpillar – an inching, cylindrical eating machine – through the quiet pupa stage to a butterfly – a beautiful and colourful flying creature – is one of the most exquisite things in the natural world. One day, the caterpillar stops eating, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon or moults into a shiny chrysalis. Then it radically transforms its body emerging as a butterfly or moth.

I am sure you are wondering what this has to do with the Christian life? Let’s compare a person to the butterfly, starting at the egg stage. On becoming born again, a believer in Christ Jesus, our Saviour, hatches into a caterpillar. He needs to eat voraciously to grow – which is to read and meditate on the Bible, the Word of God and obey it.

Just like the skin of the caterpillar, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian sheds bad habits and sins in his life continuously as his Christian character matures. The pupa stage seems like a “no action”, ugly and maybe painful time but it is really a time of the greatest transformation and can be compared with quiet times, fasting, periods of separation, prayers and times alone in God’s presence. Then the maturing Christian like the butterfly emerges! The old has passed away: behold, the new has come! So it is with a great miraculous transformation, the man born with the sin nature metamorphoses into a mature Christian with new thoughts, desires and habits. He may not be perfect but he is changed from glory to glory day after day. Just as the adult butterfly needs to reproduce, so the Christian needs to reproduce his kind.

ACTION:  Choose two people to pray for to know Christ, mentor and disciple them.

PRAYER: Lord, please help me to know who you are sending me to.