Caterpillar Moments and Butterfly Potentials

Someone once said, "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly".

For all those facing caterpillar moments who are on the threshold of butterfly breakthroughs it is vital to remember that struggle, challenges to change and grow and conscious, intentional battles with old patterns and ways of thinking are necessary for new potentials to be realized in our lives.  The caterpillar moments are part of a design God has implanted and included in human nature and experience that enables us, like the caterpillar, to reach our full potential and identity.  So often, it is when we are on the threshold of a "butterfly breakthrough" in our lives that we are most tempted to give up the struggle.

Most of the time, these temptations to give up or give in or resign ourselves to the caterpillar mentality (oh, well, I guess this is just the way I'll always be; there seems to be no way out of this cocoon) come from what C. S. Lewis famously described as the spiritual activity of "Screwtape" and his associates in their attempts to continually thwart God's good creation and purposes for our lives.  To borrow a line from the "Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers", "the enemy knows you, and he fears what you may become".

We will always be opposed by the enemy of our souls in progressing toward who we are created to be, the butterfly that resides within.  In Christ's coming into the world in our human nature, He showed us clearly the path from caterpillar to butterfly.  His resurrection from the dead on the Great Sunday of Easter was the demonstration for all that the way into becoming who we are meant to be in God's loving plan of purpose and relationship with Him is through the struggles, sometimes the deep soul sufferings that battles and challenges cause.  But the release of the new person we are meant to be, the coming forth of the butterfly in us through the divine inward assistance and enabling, brings with it the joy of discovering that we were meant to fly, not crawl, and that there is a beauty in each one of our lives that is meant to be experienced and shared with the world that will bring hope to others caught in caterpillar moments and mentalities and great joy and fulfillment to each of us.

In this way the world, the created order itself, societies and cultures, can be beautified and elevated and transformed as people begin to realize that which they were created for and find the power to fly and share the beauty within them in ways that inspire the faith, hope and perseverance of others stuck in caterpillar moments and patterns.  There is a butterfly potential within each one of us awaiting its release.