Lent: Day 22

Renewed and Transformed

For several summers now I’ve been raising Monarch eggs and caterpillars into butterflies and releasing them. The gorgeous orange and black butterflies are endangered and have difficulty finding milkweed plants which they need to lay their eggs and which provide the only food the caterpillars eat. The process to me is exciting and miraculous! When I thought about the cycle, it might be compared to the cycles of a person’s spiritual growth.

The tiny eggs are found hidden under the milkweed leaves. They remind me that when each of us is born, we have the God given potential to grow and develop into a loving child of God. When a Monarch egg hatches into a tiny caterpillar it has one goal: to take in enough food and energy to grow 200 times its original size until it is time to spin its chrysalis. Like caterpillars, we seek to take in spiritual nourishment and energy through learning about our religious heritage, Jesus’ teachings, scripture and reaching out with God’s love to those around us.

Next comes the caterpillar’s struggle and arduous task of spinning the chrysalis. Inside is a transforming creature getting ready to be born. It seems that the period of Lent for Christians is a chance for all of us to shed our old skins and after a period of working and waiting, an opportunity to open ourselves up to become renewed and transformed!
After weeks of patient waiting the butterfly is finally ready to emerge. At first, it has tiny wings and is too weak to fly, but then finally bursts into flight – ready to repeat the cycle of birth again.

In our lives transformation is always within reach. Through our daily spiritual “work” and life experiences, as well as many back slides, we gradually achieve glimmerings of what a life transformed by God’s love would be like. Through these glimpses we are given the chance that allows us to break out of our self-made chrysalis’ walls, gain strength and try out our new wings!

Prayer: Dear God, May we like the caterpillars and butterflies stay focused on the path which leads to spiritual development and transformation of our lives. Help us to seek out spiritual nourishment, growing in our personal awareness of Christ’s love. Amen.