Analogy of the Butterfly

Like the caterpillar, humans come in many colors and sizes. As we travel life‘s pathway, we ripple along on the many legs of our thoughts and ideals. At times, as we think lofty thoughts about God; we munch the leaves of progress, at other times we hunch up our backs with pride and disdain for God‘s promises, slowly going nowhere. When we act in this manner our lives become empty and hollow, easily squashed by the heels of life‘s problems.

Some people come to a point in their lives, when they become aware of their emptiness and long for ways to fill their hollow void. They try drugs, alcohol or sex. Others remember the Sunday Schools of their youth or the past encouragement of a christian they met and turn to God. Those that get this far, are then slowly wrapped in the arms of God‘s love. It doesn‘t happen overnight, but slowly, a single thread at a time, until they are fully enveloped. Their natural sinful state becomes a dry, crusty shell and their new spiritual man gently undergoes a metamorphosis into the person God wants them to be. While wrapped in the cocoon of God’s love, nothing can remove them from His shelter. Neither the storms of life nor the winds of change can shake them from their steadfast faith in Him.

Then, at the appointed time of their maturity, they start to loosen themselves from God‘s cocoon of protection to fly on their own, led by their immoveable faith and trust in their creator. They stretch out their gossamer wings of faith and show to the world the inner beauty that only a person who trusts in God can have. They fly from person to person sharing the sweet nectar of the gospel and allowing people to see the inner beauty that God in His goodness outwardly reveals.

However, unlike the butterfly, they are not fragile. They are armed with the weapons and armor of spiritual warfare. Using their wings that are steeled by the Word of God, they fly out into the world, ready to combat the forces of evil and raze the gates of Hell, confident in their surety of victory that has already been given to them two thousand years ago at the cross of Christ.