A Lesson from the Caterpillar

Everyone knows that the butterfly is first a caterpillar, but have you ever really thought about  how this transformation happens?  As beautiful and serene as the butterfly is when it emerges from its cocoon, the process of becoming a butterfly is anything but beautiful and serene.  When a caterpillar is full grown, it begins the transformation process by secreting a liquid that forms a silk-like thread that the caterpillar uses to attach the lower half of its body to a leaf or a stick.  The caterpillar then spins this silk-like thread to cover its entire body.  Once inside the cocoon, the caterpillar actually digests itself, leaving only a few cells and tissues that will eventually become a butterfly.  The entire process takes about four weeks and when the transformation is complete, the butterfly emerges from the cocoon.  The creature that emerges from the cocoon no longer resembles a caterpillar.  It is no longer classified as a caterpillar.  The species that went into the cocoon inched along the ground, across leaves and along twigs, moving slowly running the risk of being destroyed by outside forces.  The species that emerges from the cocoon now spreads its wings and flies, liberated from the things that restricted the caterpillar!  So what lesson, you may ask can we learn from the caterpillar?  It is really very simple, the caterpillar will never be able to leave the ground and fly unless it loses its life and becomes a butterfly.  Jesus said " If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find it." Matthew 16 :25 CEV.  If we are ever to become all that God calls us to be, the first thing we must be willing to do is die.  That part of being a Christian is never easy, because much like the caterpillar's dying process, our old man's dying process is not pretty.  Our old nature goes kicking and screaming into death.  Many times, the dying process for our old man is a lot like the Whack-a-Mole game you find in the arcade; every time you think he's done, he pops up in another area of the new man's life.  The key is to stay on the cross, in the tomb...on the altar until that old man is completely dead.  If  a caterpillar stays in the cocoon and digests itself, a new creature emerges. If we stay on the altar, if we endure the dying process, a new creature emerges..."Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new." 2 Cor. 5:17 ASV.  As Christians, when we come off the altar, when the dying process is complete, we should no longer resemble the old man.  Like the caterpillar, we should be a new creature, one that resembles the resurrected Christ!  Our problem is that we don't want to die, but dying is exactly what it takes for Christ to be able to use us.  Paul gave up everything to follow Christ, he left behind his reputation as one who persecuted Christians, he let go of his spot on the Sanhedrin, he forgot about the prestige of being a student of the great teacher Gamaliel.  Paul climbed up on the cross and stayed there until he was able to say, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me." Gal. 2:20 ASV.  Like the caterpillar, Paul was willing to exchange what he had, go through an often painful process in order to gain something greater on the other side.  So here's my advice dearly loved ones, let's take a lesson from the caterpillar, go ahead, and climb up on the cross, or the altar and give ourselves over to the dying process.  We will never become all that God wants, all that Christ died to give us until we do.  Remember, on the other side of the cocoon, the "new creature" that was the caterpillar never again crawls on the ground or inches its way along a twig!