My first official blog spot. Cool. I know it’s not a major bench mark to most but I’m really excited. Here’s why.
Up until now, I was not interested in clogging, flogging or blogging and although my disinterest in clogging and flogging remains, I realized blogging could serve a greater purpose.
The butterfly has been an ever-present insect in my life. If there is a butterfly nearby, I am mesmerized until they fly out of view. Not only do I notice them frequently, but for some reason, I often find myself having to duck out of their flight pattern!
I love butterflies. In fact, I want to be one! An ever-present symbol of desirable transformation (to me and many), the butterfly represents the beauty and gracefulness we seek in completing the purpose of our lives. Their color and freedom attracts us to marvel and wish for the day we break free of our cocoons and truly start living fully. But what about the here and now? Shall we wait to live free and fully?
Most of us, including myself, feel like we are the opposite of the butterfly. Far from graceful, the caterpillar is usually the fat “tube-with-legs” weighing down leaves and eating everything in site. Slow and pesky, they hide in the bushes gorging themselves. Most of us would agree, caterpillars do not embody beauty. I myself, have no problem allowing a gracious butterfly to land on me but the thought of holding a hairy caterpillar makes me want to scream like a girl.
If you look at a caterpillar and a butterfly side by side, they look nothing alike. They look like two very different, very separate bugs with very different purposes. But the amazing fact is, they are one in the same. And like the butterfly, we are called to be transformed from glory to glory to glory. Someday, I hope to be so changed, I am unrecognizable: a new creation for the glory of God.
But many of us miss that the real glory of God’s plan and our story begins in the journey of the caterpillar, not the flight of the butterfly. The caterpillar may be “fat” according to our social standards but did you know it eats as much as twenty times its own weight in its lifetime? It grows at such a rapid rate, it has to split its old skin and shed it frequently. This is a very necessary part of the caterpillar’s preparation for becoming a butterfly.
Like many examples modeled throughout nature, God loves to develop. It’s the miracle of His creation and I believe growth is what He enjoys most about it. It’s the joy of a gardener watering the seeds in anticipation of the blossom: the joy of the artist playing with colors before the discovery of the masterpiece: the bliss of the parent watching their baby take their first step. From God’s point of view, metamorphosis is delightful. We were purposed for the process for changing form; not into something he would rather have, but something He always knew we’d become. This is not the “work” or labor of the Lord, but the joy of the Lord. God loves the caterpillar just as much as the butterfly for they are one in the same.
We are purposed for metamorphosis, the process of changing form but it starts within. From within the invisible depths of our hearts, change progresses little by little, until one day, we look back and see how far we have come. We are to model the caterpillar: consuming so much of the “food” God has for us that we cannot possibly remain content in our old selves. Focused on the purpose and cares of the here and now, the caterpillar is our model of perseverance, strength, and the all-consuming hunger for the things of God that will change our very form.
We all want to be butterflies. We spend a great deal of time admiring, watching, and wishing to be something purposeful and awesome. But while we covet the future and dream about the visible change, we may be in danger of missing how the change happens. We are so dazzled by the lovely butterfly; little do we realize the marvel of the caterpillar. We want big, glorious and dramatic change so badly that we miss the joy of the subtle miracle of growth each day brings.
Thus the creation of “Metamorphosis”, a blog inspired by the awe of God’s creative design at work in us. It is designed to help us ponder our plan and purpose for TODAY and reflect on what God is doing NOW.
(I bet you were wondering what bugs had to do with blogging, huh?)
The mission of the of this blog is to write, solidify and share the 360-degree insights and revelation of God’s character, truth and plan as it unfolds in our hearts and transforms what we are.
Habakkuk 2:2-3
Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come.”
Proverbs 3:3 Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Of the greatest commandment with the lord, love the Lord your Good (Deut 6) with all your heart and all your soul He said: “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Proverbs 7: 2-3
My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live, and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
Jer 30:2
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 “Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel , saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.”
Following God’s instructions, this blog is dedicated to writing about God’s transforming revelations, so that they may be etched into our hearts and sealed into our souls for all eternity.
God Bless you.
