Hello,
When I was younger, high
school and college, I thought that one could tell if a person was a Christian
by the way that they acted. I don’t think that anymore. Now over 30 years
ago, I read Romans 6:1-11,(one of the lessons that was read in church on Sunday)
and that changed my mind. Here’s a parable that I wrote to paint this
scripture:
A little boy watched a group of caterpillars
accordion their way up a small tree on a warm spring day. They appeared
to him as a high school marching band, crawling in perfect rhythm, millimeter
by millimeter, up the trunk now made main street, decked out in their bright
striped nature provided uniforms. Upon reaching the branches, as if there
was some final blow of the drum major’s whistle, the band dispersed. Each
caterpillar scurried to a seemingly predetermined locale. The boy’s eyes
gleamed with amazement as each member of the band of brightly arrayed
caterpillars spun itself into its cocoon as an arctic traveler envelops himself
tightly in his sleeping bag. The little boy returned to that tree
every day to see what was to become of these self-made mummies, once a band of
caterpillars so full of energy, now motionless for days apparently without
life.
Then one day as he was examining one of the
cocoons, he saw it begin to quiver. As a flower photographed with a time-lapse
camera, he watched a beautiful and graceful butterfly bloom forth, still
bearing a sticky film from its respite in its cocoon. The summer sun
dried the butterfly’s wings, and the rest of its band began to reassemble, each
one emerging from its temporary tomb. When the sun finished its job of
drying their wings, the little boy marveled how this band of caterpillars had
traded in their old uniforms for much more beautiful and bright ones. He
reached out to touch these newly attired band members, but just as he did they
once again began their parade and flew away. That is, all except one of
them.
The boy drew close to this lone butterfly to see
if there was something wrong with it. It looked to him that this
butterfly lacked nothing that its now parading comrades had. Its wings
had dried and it flapped them without trouble, yet it did not fly away.
Instead the butterfly walked back and forth along the branch, swaying to and
fro as the wind caught its wings, struggling as a young sailor trying to dock
his boat while the wind pushes its full sail back out into the lake. The
little boy sat for hours watching the butterfly traverse the branch, each trip
a little more difficult, each trip a little slower. Finally, having lost
all of its strength, the butterfly succumbed to the wind and it fell from its
branch.
It lay there on the ground not moving. The
boy waited anxiously for it to start walking around again, but it did
not. Puzzled, the little boy reached down and picked up the butterfly and
cradled it in his hands. The beautiful creature was now so weak that it
could barely move its wings. The little boy looked at this worn out
butterfly that would not fly, and he said to it, “How can you, a butterfly,
life like a caterpillar?
Romans 6:2, “How can you who died to sin go on
living in it?”
Have a great week, butterflies!
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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