He Wants To Change You + ”It Might Just Be a Cocoon”
Beauty Ahead.
Since I bought this journal a few weeks ago, I have been “into” butterflies which I never really have been before. We have watched several documentaries and I’ve done some reading and WOW! butterflies are fascinating! Moreso, the process of transformation and metamorphosis is fascinating.
On Monday night, I dreamed lots of random dreams, but close to morning, a little phrase came to mind, “It might just be a cocoon.” And it was in my mind when I woke up. (That line should probably be re-phrased, “It might just be a chrysalis,” because butterflies don’t have cocoons.)
While I have watched a few BBC and Nature documentaries, I certainly don’t know enough to be a butterfly expert, but the basics (of a monarch) go like this:
* A female lays an egg on the leaf of a milkweed plant.
* The egg hatches into what is called the “1st instar larvae,” a tiny little caterpillar who comes out of his eggshell and promptly eats it.
* That little caterpillar molts or sheds its exterior four more times, each time, revealing a slightly larger and more distinct “caterpillar.” The length of the 1st instar is roughly 2-6 MM, but by the 5th shed cycle, it has grown to 25-45 MM.
* All throughout this cycle, the growing caterpillar is an eating machine, consuming the fibers of the milkweed he hatched on, eating the leaves of the same plant, and even consuming the skin he shed.
* After the 5th molt, he will look for a place to weave a silken pad to hang from a high spot. He will shed his outer layer one final time to form a chrysalis, which will be his “home” for the next 5-15 days. Not only will this be home, but it will also be the place of one of the greatest transformations in all the animal world. The small chartreuse casing revealed by that final molt will become the accommodations for metamorphosis, a place of “STRIKING, DISTINCT, LIFE CHANGES.” (AmericanNationalHistoryMuseum.com)
* When it is first revealed, the chrysalis is soft, but it hardens to protect the butterfly that will soon begin to form inside.
* The chrysalis will take roughly 14 days to transform its contents to a butterfly.
* Inside of the chrysalis, “almost all of the caterpillar’s body is dissolved to a kind of soup.” The caterpillar releases enzymes, called caspsases, which “rip apart cells in its muscles, digestive system, and other organs.” Nearly all of the caterpillar is dissolved, with the exception of breathing tubes.
* From the time it hatches, the 1st instar larvae has something in its body called “imaginal disks,” “which are just waiting for the right time to activate.” During the caterpillar stage, the imaginal disks are kept dormant by a series of hormones in its body. Each of these pairs of disks contain the “code” or “recipe” for a particular body part of a butterfly. Each disk starts off containing roughly 50 cells, which multiply to thousands during its 2 weeks in the “accommodations” of the chrysalis. Once locked away in these confines, the hormones that hindered the imaginal disks decrease, and these disks begin to form an adult butterfly from the inside out.
* After roughly sixteen days in the formative process, the butterfly is ready to eclose, or emerge, from its temporary housing. The chrysalis splits down the center and the butterfly makes its exit.
* Not only does the butterfly emerge but the chrysalis also houses some reddish fluid, which is the waste of the butterfly during its stay.
* The butterfly finds a spot to hang and dry its wings, and once they dry and harden, the butterfly is ready to fly. Most generations of butterflies (monarch) live 2-6 weeks with the exception of the 4th generation, which travels from the North all the way back to Mexico, and lives approximately 8 mos. to begin the northern migration in the spring.
* The butterfly spends its adult life sipping nectar, which facilitates the pollination of fruits, flowers, and vegetables. They mate and the next generation begins the life cycle of metamorphosis all over again. While this final stage of their life plays out, they bring beauty to the world, having undergone striking, distinct life changes, they carry out the assignment of their Creator.
My mind is literally blown by this one little creature: one little design of the Master Designer. It is STUNNING, SHOCKING, and SO INSIGHTFUL.
A few thoughts and reminders I’ll take away from this “dive” into butterflies.
1. God is a God of PROCESS. He starts each life in its smallest possible form and slowly transitions it from one stage of growth to another. I have often heard “If any man be in Christ, He is a new creation,” used in connection with butterflies, but this shows that the new creation will be a “baby.” We are born again into the family of God and will go through a series of stages and steps of growth and maturation to become what God ultimately has designed us to be.
2. The stages we go through may not be lovely. I have never heard someone say, “What a beautiful caterpillar.” Caterpillars are sometimes “cute,” but not what one typically associates with beauty. But every stage is a requirement for destiny and carries all the potential for beauty.
3. There are times to leave old things behind. A monarch sheds 5x. Our spiritual lives are similar…God slowly grows us from one stage to the next, and each stage requires the old to be left behind. The caterpillar does not grieve its old skin, but simply crawls out of it to reveal a more mature version of itself. There will be times to leave the past in the past. “Forgetting those things which are behind…”
4. We don’t start off as what we “will be” but all the raw materials for calling & future are there. The “imaginal disks” for “Father of the Faithful” were in Abraham when he left Ur of the Chladees, but what a journey of waits and false starts to finally wear the name tag that says “Father.” The “imaginal disks” for ruler were in Joseph when he dreamed dreams as a teenager, but the process to see those dreams fulfilled included betrayal, false accusations, and the tight confines of an underserved prison sentence. The “imaginal disks” of King lay dormant in a ruddy shepherd boy when he strummed melodies on his harp, slung stones, and led sheep. But the steps to the throne were much more than oil poured. The destiny locked inside David was released in caves & wildernesses, during a years-long manhunt. The “man after God’s own heart” emerged after setbacks and failures. The “imaginal disks” for “mother of the Messiah” were housed in the body of a young girl long before an angel spoke “Hail, thou that art highly favored…” Mary’s purpose likely unfolded in ridicule, accusations, and assumptions. “That Holy Thing” which was born of her came into the world in the least likely of scenarios, and the miracle of redemption required a “sword to pierce her soul.” And in the greatest of unlikely situations, the “imaginal disks” for Redemption were there in the infant form of a baby born in Bethlehem one night, thousands of years ago. God Himself, robed in the most fragile frame of infancy, came into the world, not as He “would be,” but in the form every other human life begins with. God Himself did not circumnavigate the process, but “made Himself of no reputation.” The raw potential of Redeemer lay helpless in a manger. “The King of Kings lay thus in a lowly manger.” No one of us is now what we will be or can be. All the “imaginal disks” for God’s ultimate design are currently present, but not yet realized. What we “will be” unfolds as we say, “Thy will be done.” What we “will be” unfolds as we surrender to God’s process. Ultimately, the final result will not be revealed until heaven… “Dear friends, we are God’s children now, but He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we know that we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is.” (I John 3:2)
(Ok…my brain is going so many directions, and I really need to work on book stuff, but one more thing for this moment…)
5. The job of the caterpillar, in all its stages, is to eat. The monarch egg is deposited on milkweed, and once it emerges all the little caterpillar has to do is stay close to the milkweed and EAT the milkweed. As soon as it hatches from its egg, it consumes it, and goes on to become an eating machine. “The primary job of the caterpillar is to eat and grow.” Our primary job in the process God is working in our lives is to eat “Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” (Jeremiah 15:16) “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby…” (I Peter 2:2) Our “job” is to consume the Word and stay close to the Source. We can’t force any aspect of the process, but if we do our job, we will grow, and the process will unfold! We must eat our way to purpose & eat our way to the “expected end.” He alone knows. (Jeremiah 29:11)
(Ok…the thoughts are like fireworks right now!)
6. Monarch caterpillars eat, but they ONLY eat milkweed. Totally blown away by this: “milkweed leaves contain bitter substances in their latex that the caterpillar stores in its body and uses to discourage birds and mice from eating it.” “Milkweed contains an alkaloid which makes the caterpillars bitter to eat. Predators of the monarch butterfly learn to recognize their bright patterning, remembering not to consume them for their bitter taste. The bitter things in your life are actually protection from the enemy. The bitter things in our lives keep us dependent, which ultimately provides us with a defense. Don’t despise the bitter you’re required to consume…it’s keeping you safe.
7. Back to the original “thought:” “It might just be a cocoon.” The chrysalis is tight. As the butterfly grows in its final formative stage, the chrysalis becomes more and more confining. That place that must feel so constricting might just be a cocoon…your season may just be a chrysalis. God may just be up to greater miracles than your mind can fathom or conceive. He may have you wrapped in the walls of a compact chrysalis forming and fashioning a far more beautiful and mature version of you. “Tribulation worketh patience.” (Romans 5:4) This could be re-phrasing. ‘Pressure creates patience.’ It is pressure and strain that God so often uses to create His greatest beauty in our lives. The butterfly doesn’t have an understanding of the process it is undergoing, it must simply wait through this tight season.
And, while there could be a million more points & parallels, this here’s the final two for this ‘journal-er’:
8. The butterfly doesn’t “know” what it will be when it’s a caterpillar or while it’s enclosed in a chrysalis. There is a lack of understanding because it is small, and the Creator is big. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” saith the LORD… (Isaiah 56:8) There are times, all of the time :), where we as mere humans, have no insight into what the LORD is doing. We must choose to be still and trust through the creative process. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10) “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” –Richard Buckminster Fuller
9. The butterfly is most beautiful at the end of its life cycle. Butterflies are more beautiful in the latter stage of their life than at their beginning. As we age as humans, we so often feel the best is behind us, beauty is gone. But, if we could see the truest reality, we would understand the words of Paul, “though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day…” (2 Corinthians 4:16) While the shell of our body may sag and droop and wither, if we could see with spiritual eyes, we would see the “wings” of the inward man being formed in those who have endured on the journey of faith…It is those who have been through the process that have wings. It is those who have patiently and bravely undergone God’s formative operations in their lives that are most beautiful inside. It is those who have allowed the Designer to walk them through every stage and stop of HIS plan. It is these who are clothed with inner beauty. Peter wrote, “You should clothe yourselves instead with beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle & quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.” (I Peter 3:4)
This gentle & quiet spirit is formed as we submit to circumstances and hardship. In submitting to all God’s plans, we grow in beauty. We are clothed with wings. We are more beautiful at our end than at our beginning.
There is beauty ahead… always beauty ahead.
The same God Who forms (at least) millions of butterflies each year is far more concerned with the formation and creation of our lives. He tenderly and gently forms His image in us through His process. His character is patterned in us through a life-long metamorphosis…a series of striking life changes. He’s crafting something so beautiful; it may be too beautiful for this life and will finally be revealed in heaven.
It might just be a cocoon.
Trust His process.
There is beauty Ahead.
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
–Maya Angelou
Thank you for joining me for this journey!
Go grab your Bible and your journal!
I look forward to the power of this habit in your life. This is Unedited.