Good morning…
Today I went out into the second year of our garden following the weekend’s hard rains, and the big purple flowers on this climbing vine are wrecked. Their five-inch round beauty was so bold and life-giving, and now they are destroyed, ripped apart, ruined. I think to myself, “Why did I take their beauty for granted? Why didn’t I snap pictures of them in their full blooming glory?” Had I known their brilliance would have been so short lived, I would have savored them more, soaked in the gift of them more, noticed their unique intricacies more.
I come in from our garden and notice a box of sayings sitting on my desk. I am drawn to lift the lid. On top of the pile – I’m not kidding – sits this card.
It is as if God is giving us a shocking caption for our photo of the once gorgeous blooms, now wrecked, ripped up, ruined by the rains. “Metamorphosis is naturally destructive.”
Researching the long word, I learn that metamorphosis in Latin comes from the combination of metamorphoun, which means to “transform,” and from morphē, which means to “form”. Thus, metamorphosis is defined as “transformation in physical form by supernatural means”, “an abrupt change in structure of an animal (such as a butterfly or a frog) occurring subsequent to birth or hatching”. Other examples given are these: “Heat and pressure over thousand of years may eventually turn tiny organisms into petroleum, and coal into diamonds. And the most beloved of natural metamorphosis is probably the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies.”
Caterpillars inch along with an ounce of beauty, but raise your hand if your are more mesmerized by the light, airy flight of each breathtaking butterfly. I think to myself, “I bet next year these vines will climb higher and wider, hosting and boasting an expanded amount of beautiful blooms.” I promise you, next year I will savor more deeply the plethora of purple before the hard, destructive rains set in.
Now I perch this card in our foyer to remind myself of God’s supernatural process of multiplying beauty in flowers, animals, and surrendered people.
“Transformation,” is the heading for 1 Corinthians 15:51-58 in The Passion Translation.
Listen, and I will tell you a divine mystery: not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in an instant – or “in an atom of time [Gr. en atomo]”—in the twinkling of his eye. For when the last trumpet is sounded, the dead will come back to life. We will be indestructible and we will be transformed. For we will discard our mortal “clothes” and slip into a body that is imperishable. What is mortal now will be exchanged for immortality. And when that which is mortal puts on immortality, and what now decays is exchanged for what will never decay, then the Scripture will be fulfilled that says:
Death is swallowed up by a triumphant victory! (See Isa. 25:8.)
So death, tell me, where is your victory?
Tell me death, where is your sting? (See Hos. 13:14.)
It is sin that gives death its sting and the law that gives sin its power. (The footnote says here: “In reading vv. 55 and 56 together, we can see that the victory of v. 55 is the total victory over sin at the cross where we were co-crucified with Jesus Christ. The sting of v. 55 that is removed is the empowering of sin by the law.”) But we thank God for giving us the victory as conquerors through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. (The Aramaic can be translated “Accept God’s grace.”)
So now, beloved ones, stand firm, stable, and enduring. Live your lives with an unshakable confidence. We know that we prosper and excel in every season by serving the Lord, because we are assured that our union with the Lord makes our labor productive with fruit that endures.
This sunny morning, it seems God is teaching us that the naturally destructive process of metamorphosis is a predictable part of our union with the Lord we serve. Prospering and excelling in every season, the risen Christ now produces lasting fruit in our daily lives. To add an exclamation point, I am drawn to one of my favorite verses in the Bible, John 15:16a (NIV).
“You did not choose me,” Jesus whispers, “but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last…”
…Sue…
