As the wind and air help guide this beautiful creature of God’s, it desperately tries to find a safe haven to land.  A leafy subject is needed for its liking. At last, she finds one! She perches herself there and in a relaxed state she releases her 100 or so tiny eggs.  She must be careful to make sure her precious babies are hidden from any predators that may be looming. In doing so, she must attach her delicate eggs to the underside of the leaf. Once the eggs have hatched, the creatures that emerge set out on their course into a world unknown. The creatures’ main purpose and focus, is self-indulgance, feasting on the leafy world around them. They must eat enough to store nutrients that will last up to a year. Because they grow very rapidly, their skin will not stretch so they are forced to shed their skin periodically in order for their bodies to grow. They spend their days and nights going about the earth, crawling, inching their way around. When they can’t eat or grow anymore, a wonderful, glorious transformation take place. They shed their skin one last time and prepare to die to themselves in order for something new to be born. It is one of the greatest mysteries. The creature sits still for a while as if they are saying, “Okay, I quit, I will surrender.” At that season in the creature’s life, a new protective skin will begin to form, providing security from an unsafe and harsh environment. No one knows exactly how the creature changes form in such a dramatic way. Clusters of cells inside their bodies called imaginal buds, meaning, “of the imagination,” begin to imagine a glorious transformation and of taking flight. Psychologists use the word imago to mean an idealized image of a loved one or of one’s self. In this transformational state, a synthesis of form and shape evolve. When the creature cannot grow anymore, it knows it’s time to change. The crisis of overeating, fatigue and breakdown prompts the disintegration of almost everything about the world the creature as known and a new creature is born. During the process, the creature turns to liquid and holds onto the cells it wants to and lets go of the ones it doesn’t.  It becomes willing to let go of a life that is no longer productive and it works hard to become a new creation.  After the synthesis is complete, the new creature then has to vigorously fight and struggle to be set free from its current bondage. During this struggle they grow, develop, learn and gain the strength that is needed to survive in the vast world around them.

Once free, they quickly learn to walk and then they learn to fly! And a beautiful butterfly soars across the sky!

2 Corinthians 5:17