The Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis.....Elijah and I were recently able to see all stages of this at a local library. They had Monarch Butterflies in all stages of life on display. It was fascinating! What really struck me was the correlation between these stages on our Christian journey...which I was able to share with Elijah (loudly!) at the public library...while praying that the rest of the children who were listening would have a seed planted that would someday lead to a decision for Christ!

Let me share a few pictures with you..Elijah is busy looking for the eggs of the Monarch on the milkweed plants that are scattered around the farm...they look like this:



When the egg hatches, the caterpillars emerge....they are incredibly tiny. However, God gave them wonderful protection. The only place that a Monarch lays its eggs is on the Milkweed plant. This plant is poisonous. This is the plant that the caterpillar feeds on. They continue through their entire life cycle on this plant until they become a butterfly...and then they return to a Milkweed plant to start the cycle all over again. Because they feed on this plant, they are poisonous to predators such as birds. God gave them very distinct markings....the predators know that this caterpillar (and later the butterfly) are poisonous and they leave them alone. Isn't God incredible?

Just in case you haven't seen what a Monarch caterpillar looks like:



Aren't they beautiful?! Now, here is the really neat part. When the time comes for the caterpillar to progress to a butterfly, they hang themselves in a sort of a "J"....like this:



However, they do not spin a silk cocoon....they discard their old body and in its place you find a new "body" (chrysalis)....new look, new color...nothing that identifies it as what it was....completely changed!



In person, this doesn't even look real......the band around the top is a shiny gold color. It is a beautiful thing! This continues to change....each time getting a little closer to the end creation...the butterfly. Here is what it looks like during this transformation:



And from this emerges a totally new creation:



How wonderfully this reflects our lives as we surrender them to Christ! We are not to keep the "old sinful body" and try to change it....we are to die to self....to allow the old and sinful nature to be put to death so that a new creation can emerge that will reflect the glory of the God that we serve! We fight so hard against this death of our old nature, we are comfortable with it.....it is all we know...we don't want to "die". Yet if we allow Him to work His will in this, we will become "transformed" and become the beautiful creature He intended us to be!