Butterflies!

Alive in Christ

Around three months ago two peacock butterflies came in on the same day and took up residence in a high corner of our bathroom where they have sat, side by side ever since with their wings tightly closed hiding their beautiful colouring within. After a few days they had not moved and I thought they had just died. I know this does not say a lot for my house keeping skills but I could not bring myself to get them down and there they have sat, two dead, colourless leaves. Until yesterday. As I was taking a shower I suddenly felt something gently land on my arm and, when I looked, found this beautiful butterfly sitting there. Not wanting it to drown I quickly removed it to the top of the shower curtain and from there is flew off and landed on the opposite wall from where it had come from.

Dead in Adam

Initially I thought that this was another butterfly just come in out of the cold but when I looked up, to my surprise, there was nothing where once the two lifeless butterflies had sat so I started looking round for the second one. And there it was, hanging from the light switch cord, wings closed once more. After such a long time of hibernation what had made them come to life, fly around for a few minutes and then settle back to darkness once again? This morning they were still in their new positions but a couple of hours later they have gone, disappeared completely. I do not know where.

It has got me thinking that these butterflies are a little bit like our (or my) Christian life. We bring it out into the sunshine every now and again, flutter around, touching everyone who sees us, doing good and living the way that Jesus wants us to but, all too often, we hide ourselves away in a dark corner with the shutters drawn where no one can see our best bits and we don't tell anyone about the love that Jesus has to offer. I would like to think that those two butterflies are now dancing over the gardens and flowers in the sunshine making everyone who sees them wish that they could be the same as those two beautiful creatures and seeing they have something special inside them that they want too. That is exactly what we should be doing - going out and making disciples of all nations and taking the gospel to all the world and not hugging it to ourselves. Once in a while we have to let go of our cosy little hidey hole and trust God to guide us to where He wants us to be and to do what He created us to do. We should be like a butterfly and leave a little mark on everyone we touch, whether they choose to take any notice of it or not we will have done what God wants.