Joe put down his phone and felt tired. He had been on the phone with the children’s leader from their Church and the conversation had been very frustrating! The children’s leader was planning a picnic in Medford Forest for the kids’ group, and she wanted to know what arrangements Joe would make for them if it rained. Joe had patiently tried to explain that he was not in charge of the weather, and he did not make plans for groups on rainy days. Joe told the woman that she was the one who should make a backup plan in case the weather was bad. The children’s leader did not like this answer and had talked ‘loudly’ to Joe for 15 minutes about this! Joe was thankful to get off the phone.
Joe poured himself a cup of coffee and was just sitting down to relax when he suddenly heard screams! Joe jumped to his feet and his coffee fell to the floor! Joe grabbed his crutches and went as fast as he could out the door and onto the porch!
He could still hear the screams, and they were getting closer! Soon Frank came bounding out of the forest, followed closely by a screaming Haley! Haley ran up to Joe and screamed at him, “I just saw the most awful thing in the forest!”
Joe tried to calm Haley down and asked her to tell him exactly what she had seen. Haley could hardly talk because she was trying to catch her breath, but eventually she managed to say that she had seen a worm! Joe did not know what to say! He suggested that he and Haley take the 4-wheeler and go and see this worm.
They got on the 4-wheeler and soon arrived at the spot where Haley had seen the worm. She was afraid to go close, but she told Joe that the worm was on the big plant with the big leaves. Joe saw that it was a milkweed plant and that some of the leaves had been partially eaten. Right away he knew what he would find on the plant. Sure enough, it was a striped caterpillar. It had thin black, white, and light green stripes that went around its body and it was about two inches long. Just then Haley screamed, “Look out! The worm might attack that orange and black butterfly that just landed on the plant!” Joe just laughed and told Haley that there was nothing to get excited about. The worm was a caterpillar that was born from an egg that were laid by a monarch butterfly. The orange and black butterfly was a monarch butterfly and might even be the parent of the caterpillar. The caterpillar was not going to eat the butterfly, the food for both was the leaves of the milkweed plant. That was why some of the leaves were half eaten.
Joe looked closely at the milkweed plant and told Haley that he had something to show to her. Haley gathered all her courage and came cautiously to the plant. The caterpillar was still there, but Haley felt a little safer now that Joe was there and had explained things to her.
Haley asked Joe, “If the butterfly laid the egg, why did a caterpillar come out of the egg and not a butterfly? Did something go wrong?”
Joe laughed and said that nothing went wrong, this was the way that God had designed it. When the Monarch butterfly lays an egg, it hatches into the striped caterpillar like the one Haley found on the milkweed plant. After a while the caterpillar spins a cocoon and goes to sleep in the cocoon for several days. While the caterpillar is in the cocoon, God designed it to change into a beautiful butterfly. When it comes out of the cocoon it is a Monarch butterfly, and as soon as its wings dry, it can fly!
Joe pointed to a cocoon that he had found attached to a leaf of the milkweed plant. This was exciting! Haley wanted to take the cocoon home and keep it in her room so that she could see the butterfly coming out of the cocoon! Then she would have a pet butterfly!
Joe laughed and told Haley that they needed to leave the cocoon right where it was on the plant. If they took it home it would probably not hatch and even if it did, the new butterfly would die if it could not eat fresh milkweed leaves right away. Haley was disappointed, but she understood that they needed to leave the cocoon right where it was. Haley decided that she would check the cocoon several times each day and maybe she would get to see the new butterfly. Joe said that this was a good idea but told her that if she did happen to see the new butterfly come out of the cocoon, she must not touch it or bother it. She must learn to observe the special things in nature and not disturb them! Haley agreed that she would not touch the new butterfly if she saw it.
Joe told Haley that caterpillar, the cocoon, and the butterfly could teach her a little bit more about who she was. Just like a caterpillar is changed from a crawling worm into a flying butterfly, when we accept Jesus into our life, we get a new life that is very different!
In the Bible in II Corinthians 5:17 it says:
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ (Jesus) has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
In the Bible in Colossians 3:1-4 it says:
Since you have been raised to new life with Christ (Jesus), set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory.
Joe told Haley that before we ask Jesus to come into our life we are like that caterpillar; God provides us food to eat, air to breath, and the beauty of this earth, but we always feel like we were made for something more. Then when we ask Jesus into our heart, He begins to change us, just like the caterpillar was changed while it was in the cocoon. God is changing us a little each day to make us more like Jesus, and to get us ready for life in heaven! At the end of this life on earth believers go to heaven and receive a new wonderful body and will enjoy heaven forever!
If you have never prayed and asked Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your life, please do this today, and God will start making changes in you to get you ready for heaven!