BUTTERFLIES & BELIEVERS

Butterflies & Believers

God likes bright colours. He made the rainbow. He made the flowers. In summer brightness petals wing the gentle breeze in the form of butterflies. Technicoloured shingles cover each of their fragile wings.

Write your name quickly on a dark sky with a glowing ember from a fire and you’ll be near to describing the butterfly of the Gaels – dealan-de. These tiny flashes of lightning brighten the day as they arc from flower to flower like nerve-impulses arcing synapse gaps. Yes, think God’s thoughts after Him. Appreciate!

A preacher illustrated a point by mentioning a caterpillar who said to another caterpillar, while looking at a butterfly mid-flutter, “You’ll never see me up in one of those things!” A great transformation has to occur before a creepy-crawly caterpillar can become a beautiful butterfly. Metamorphosis, however, is not the reserved domain of caterpillars. God affects a similar inner transformation in all true believers. “…Be transformed by the renewing of your minds…” Romans 12:2.

By God’s grace those who undergo this inner metamorphosis become Christians. It is a transformation of thinking – a mind renewal. Like a flower emerging from a bud, or a butterfly from a cocoon, conversion is the opening of a once closed mind. Everlasting life begins to pump through the new Christian’s veins and he begins to soar in heavenly places when God shines His face upon him in Christ. The earthbound caterpillar becomes a butterfly with a God’s-eye view of things. What were once shades of grey can now be seen in vivid colour. From above, the rainbow looks like a well-lit landing strip – the path of righteousness!

While fluttering in the sun a butterfly might choose which flower to land on by sight or scent. But it did not choose to be a butterfly. Neither do Christians choose to be what they are. God alone makes Christians! Christ says to His disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” John 15:16a. Christians are brands plucked from the fire, (Zech. 3:3b; Jude 1:23). As we flit around we may be, as it were, writing our names in the sky, but we do not write our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, (Rev. 21:27).

Dear reader, there is a way for you to see if your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Check by keeping on repenting of your sins and keeping on believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the Word become flesh, the glory of the Father, (John 1:14). He is the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world, (John 1:29). He is the Light of the World, (John 1:9). He, who called Himself a worm as He hung on the cross, is the Sun of Righteousness who has risen with healing in His wings, (Psa. 22:6; Mal. 4:2).

Will we ever see you up in one of those things? Or are you content with a worm’s eye view of reality? Colour your world. Call on the name of the Lord – today!