Good morning…
Yesterday, in the middle of the night, I felt drawn to write about the metamorphosis of a butterfly. Then by midday, I read for the first time the following words in our assigned book chapters for this week.
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Excerpt from God’s Joyful Surprise by Sue Monk Kidd
Not long ago my daughter received a butterfly garden, a large box with big windows for viewing. Along with it came a package of tiny caterpillar larvae in a jar. We placed them prominently in the kitchen and watched with wonder as these larvae grew into fuzzy worms. After a few days we found them attached upside-down to the lid of the jar like little question marks. An incredible mystery was going on every day as the creatures seemed to migrate according to some sacred clock buried inside them. They formed the hard chrysalis around themselves, entering the dark silence of the cocoon, leaving, ending their old way of life.
Then one day we found one of the creatures emerging from its cocoon. A brilliant monarch butterfly wriggled out, unfurling its body and squeezing the extra orange color from its wings onto the bottom of the box. Ann and I watched, mesmerized by the process, captivated by the empty shell of the cocoon left behind.
This is the miracle of conversion that we experience. Life is one grand metamorphosis. We are creatures stretching into new selves, new levels of being, deeper ways of relating to God. And we leave our chrysalis behind…the husk of another time and place and being. (70-71)
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Earlier on page 70, Sue had taught us, “The basis dynamics of conversion are summed up in the words leave-arrive, end-begin, shed-emerge. These are the tensions of conversion and spiritual awakening. They are the permanent poles we travel between. In conversion we are called upon to leave, end, shed in order to arrive, begin, emerge. This is the meaning of conversion.”
Flipping back a page to 69, we read, “We do not go to sleep one night and wake up completely new and whole in the morning. No, that is magic. And as far as I know God does not relate to us a magician. That means that conversion is a process of growth and change. It begins with God and goes on silently within us, flowering out at certain unique times as He calls us to decisive moments, rediscovery, awakening, just as that initial moment of conversion did… To embrace this new birth, I was discovering, would simply be a response to more of God’s grace, allowing my conversion experience to continue.”
I began this week wondering, “Is Change Good?” The Spirit is finding lots of creative ways to teach me that change, conversion, metamorphosis is a sacred experience, initiated by God, ripe with meaning, gracious and good. As our spiritual mentor Betty Skinner encouraged us repeatedly, GROWTH AND CHANGE ARE SYNONYMOUS.
And I am sure that God who began the good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in his grace until his task within you is finally finished on that day when Jesus Christ returns (Philippians 1:6, TLB).
…Sue…
