From Humble Beginning to Glorious Hope
Life in the Sunshine State is beautiful in spring. Glorious rays of warm sun dance across my face while I sway on the porch swing, watching the kids play. They race barefoot across the grass, trying to catch butterflies.
The butterflies remind me of my mom. This month is the anniversary of her passing. She loved watching the colorful winged insects and the weightless flight of their dances around the flowers. My husband and my mom had a love-hate relationship with them. He hated them because in their caterpillar stage, they are pests, and we live on a farm. She loved them for their beauty, gracefulness, and purpose.
A Humble Beginning
Not only do butterflies appear to fly free from burdens, but their exquisite coloring captivated my mom and my children alike. Their metamorphosis from prickly-looking, unattractive caterpillars into gorgeous, brightly colored butterflies enthralled us. How could something so beautiful have such an inconspicuous beginning?
When my children were smaller, we purchased a butterfly garden for a personal view of this transformation. We received five small caterpillars in the mail with our complete kit. We added the appropriate nutrients to the provided cup and waited. They ate their fill, inched their way to the top, and formed chrysalides. For days they hung there, lifeless. We carefully removed the lid with the hanging chrysalides and hung it inside the habitat. One day the chrysalides started shaking, and slowly, ever so slowly, the bright butterflies broke free of their tiny prison. We observed them for a while before setting them free on the farm. They danced around us before flying off toward the flowering potato fields.
Metamorphosis
The transformation from a lowly, crawling caterpillar to a beautiful, free butterfly reminded us of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Like the caterpillar, Jesus too entered this world in humble surroundings. He was battered and bruised, held captive on the cross, and willingly sacrificed himself for us. Death could not hold him, and just three days later, Jesus rose from the grave (Acts 2:24).
This is why my mom loved butterflies. When it looks as if death has won and they’re firmly encompassed in a prison of hardened protein, we learn it’s only the beginning. Greater things are still to come.
Spring is my favorite time of year as the old and dead passes away, giving birth to new life. Stumbling calves nurse in the pasture. Tender green shoots of corn sprout across the fields. Different butterflies circle just out of reach of my children’s sticky hands. Bright blue skies and pink and orange sunrises promise a new day and another opportunity, a salvation from the dead of winter.
Salvation Is the Plan
Salvation was the plan from the beginning in the Garden of Eden. From the time the serpent tempted Eve and she ate the forbidden fruit, God planned an answer: Jesus. Rescue by divine nature in a Savior gave us a way of escape in this sin-soaked world.
How like this loving God to give us a Savior when he knew we would spend our days longing for rescue. I wonder if we even realize most days that we’re searching for more, trying to fill the hole in our souls? Of course, nothing but Jesus will truly satisfy.
I see the hate-side of my husband’s response to butterflies and the destruction their larvae leave behind. The caterpillars eat their fill of leaves, stuffing their bodies with food necessary to survive their metamorphosis. They never seem satisfied, and they leave behind fields of leafless crops. Like us.
While the transformation of a caterpillar requires gorging on green things, the sinful stuffing of our minds and bodies with worldly things–food, shopping, entertainment, and so on–is often the very thing that keeps us from God. Until we stop gorging on the world and turn our eyes to Jesus.
Jesus, the prince of peace, came into our world and took on our sins in his place. His transformation from a baby born in a stable to a man nailed to a cross to a resurrected king is the quintessence of hope. It’s the most loving way God provided a way for us to accept Jesus as our own Lord and be freed from our own personal prison. No hardened protein holding us back, just the freedom of a forever gift in the form of Jesus.
Spring is more than blue skies and a gentle breeze. It’s more than the awakening of our senses being renewed. In the spring, we celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, the promise of everlasting life, and an eternal peace. He is new life. Without his sacrifice, without the redemption of our sins on the cross, we spend forever separated from God.
What a mountain-moving, earth-shattering kind of love the Father has for us!
The next time you see the bright, beautiful, colorful wings of a butterfly, let it remind you of the transformation from humble beginnings to a glorious ending filled with hope. A promise of what Jesus has done for you and reminder that greater things are still to come.
Let that sweet peace be with you this Easter as you intentionally take time to linger over this holy day. May Christ touch your heart and fill you with a newness of life, mending the brokenness of sin, and renew your spirit.
is the proud wife of a smokin’ hot third generation farmer, and they have taken Psalm 127:5 literally, raising their quiverful of six kids on the farm. She loves baking, reading, writing, and arithmetic (kidding!). Amanda writes about faith, homeschooling on the farm, and family life at farmwyfe.com.
Photograph © Bethany Beams, used with permission
