06/04/2026
Listen this morning.....BUTTERFLIES
We all know a butterfly begins as a caterpillar, but the more I reflect on it, the more extraordinary the journey seems.
A caterpillar spends its life inching along branches, moving from leaf to leaf, feeding, growing, and knowing only the world within its reach.
Then one day, everything changes. It becomes still. It retreats into a cocoon, and for a time, it appears as though nothing is happening at all.
Imagine that season.
For its entire life, movement meant progress. Activity meant growth. Every step forward was evidence that something was happening. Then suddenly, there is silence.
Waiting. Stillness. The caterpillar cannot see what is taking place inside the cocoon. It cannot know that what feels like delay is actually preparation.
Yet the cocoon is not a place of punishment—it is a place of transformation.
The stillness is not evidence that God has forgotten it. The waiting is not wasted time. What appears dormant on the outside is being remade on the inside.
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." — Ecclesiastes 3:11
Then comes the wonder.
The creature that emerges is no longer the same. Wings unfold where there were once only legs. What once crawled now soars. What was limited to a branch can now travel beyond fields and rivers. It enters a world it could never have experienced before.
In many ways, people are no different.
Some are content to remain where they are because they know nothing else. Some are in a season of cocooning—feeling hidden, frustrated, or uncertain.
They remember who they used to be, but cannot yet see who they are becoming. They mistake God's process for God's absence.
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." — Romans 8:28
But perhaps the most heartbreaking sight is the butterfly that still lives like a caterpillar.
It has wings, yet it continues to crawl. It has freedom, yet it remains bound by old habits, old fears, and old ways of thinking. The transformation has already happened, but the mindset has not caught up with the reality.
How many believers live this way?
Redeemed, yet still carrying shame. Free, yet still living in chains. Called by God, yet convinced they are who they used to be.
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." — Romans 12:2
Every so often, I have the privilege of sitting beside one of these butterflies. I point beyond the branch they have always known and ask,
"Do you see what's over there?"
They answer, "Yes."
Then I tell them, "You don't have to crawl there."
They look confused.
"What do you mean?"
"You can fly."
You don't have to spend your whole life clinging to the same tree.
You don't have to stay trapped by yesterday's limitations.
You can cross rivers.
You can reach places that were once impossible.
You can walk in the freedom God has already given you.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come." — 2 Corinthians 5:17
Perhaps that is part of our calling—not only to experience transformation ourselves, but to remind others of who they have become in Christ.
To encourage those who are still cocooning.
To strengthen those who are weary.
To tell the butterflies who keep crawling that God gave them wings for a reason.
Need I say more?
"He who has ears to hear, let him hear." — Matthew 11:15
Fly.
