Let the first few verses of Psalm 34:1-3 be my praise today!
I will praise the Lord at all times.
I will constantly speak his praises.
I will boast only in the Lord;
let all who are helpless take heart.
Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
let us exalt his name together.
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As I have mentioned before, we have lots of perennials around our home. Most of them we have knowingly planted ourselves but last year and again this year a small cluster of milkweeds appeared in a flower bed behind our home. I recognized what they were and purposely left them to grow. One of them is on the verge of blooming and we have already seen a couple of monarch butterflies around them – hence the reason for leaving them to grow.
Anyway, today I took a walk around our yard and as I walked by that area, I noticed some damaged leaves and a few that had been eaten as well. I was surprised to see that we had had more than just a visit by a monarch but she had left a gift and the gift – an egg mind you! – was now a very well-developed caterpillar! (That is the picture you see above!)
I did a little research and discovered that this caterpillar, due to its size, is probably in its 5th instar which is its last interval between molts (as the caterpillar grows it gets too big for its skin and sheds it – it eats it, too – very nutritious! This is called molting.) I am eager to see it enter its pupal stage and will keep my eyes open for its chrysalis. God’s creation is so cool!
This is interesting and all but what spiritual application could it possibly have? We read 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 as a part of our Bible study this week.
…Christ’s love controls us [or urges us on]. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
As followers of Jesus, we get rid of that old skin – having died to our old life and go through a metamorphosis, as such, becoming a new person in Him!
Once the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis it is a new creation – it no longer acts like its old self but embraces and fully lives out the characteristics of its new self. Lord Jesus, help us to leave behind the past and to fully embrace what our lives are meant to be in You in the here and now! Amen!
July 10th, 2019, Wed, 8:17 pm
