Sometimes the Lord sends us reminders that He is with us, and a recent encounter with a butterfly reminded me of His faithfulness and devotion. I had decided to set up my hammock for a quiet time, which began with writing in my journal for a while. Afterwards, I moved into reading my Bible. At the same time I opened my Bible, a butterfly flew up and perched itself on the underside of a leaf…it was as if it landed there to listen. I had previously made up my mind to read the book of Ephesians out loud. There’s something about speaking scripture out that helps it sink in for me in a different way. That being said, I proceeded with my original intention with an unexpected audience.
Following my reading, the butterfly was still sitting with me so I attempted to get close to take a picture. It stayed perfectly still for my photo, but as I got within about 6 inches, it fluttered to the ground. On a whim, I stuck out my index finger and it obligingly hopped on. I marveled at the simplicity and beauty of the moment.
God speaks to me through butterflies, and this one in particular felt like it was sent just for me in that moment. Seriously, it sat on my finger for about 5 minutes and when I tried to release it to pack up my things, it would not let go. SO AWESOME. If you’re new to my love of butterflies and would like an explanation regarding their significance in my life, you can read my other post here.
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This chance encounter got me thinking more about butterflies. It’s interesting that in order to see a butterfly’s true beauty, it must be in flight, or at least have its wings fully spread. When a butterfly lands, it shuts the beauty away with it’s folded wings and it often sits trembling in a grounded state. The hidden beauty is meant to serve as a camouflage to make the creature look like something it is not…a leaf. How curious that the reduction of freedom would also lead to less beauty observed to such a degree that the creature no longer looks fully like itself. When it lands, the butterfly returns to its former way of life; grounded like a caterpillar. Only when it is exercising the freedom that it is afforded with its wings does the true essence of its beauty get displayed.
Like faith, staying strong in our freedom is challenging and we hide ourselves in shame when we are not walking in our freedom. We try to appear as something we are not, such as having “having it all together” (whatever that means), in order to keep our shame tucked away from the world. Also, the trembling could be significant because the creature lives in fear of being discovered and having the shame exposed. In our Christian walk, nothing brings about guilt and shame quite like sin that is hidden from the world. We can live with these secrets for a long time but eventually, Holy Spirit begins to work in us.
Similar to a butterfly maintaining its camouflage until a potential threat gets close enough that it takes flight, we continue to hide our sin until Holy Spirit works so profoundly or speaks through another to the point of feeling like we must either confess or explode under the pressure. Our confession, like the butterfly’s instinct to take flight, brings about the most magnificent beauty of all: freedom. The flight reveals its true beauty and freedom again but the butterfly must break through the fear and camouflage to reveal its true self in order to escape to safety.
In the same way, confession shows our truest self which is a far more beautiful version of who we are because we choose to walk in freedom rather than settling for a shameful, paler version. Bringing things to light takes the mask or camouflage off and let’s us be who we were created to be.
The fear is gone with the flap of wings.
Some may argue that the underside of a butterfly’s wings, the part that shows during the camouflage is also beautiful, and I agree. That beauty, however, pales in comparison to the spectacular beauty that shows when the butterfly reveals its truest self. In the same way, hiding allows us to show some of ourselves but because we have a secret, we feel that we have to keep the most authentic self blocked away from the world, and this robs us of our beauty.
While the World Race has certainly been a means for me to learn to walk in true freedom, I did not have to take this trip for it. If there is anything in your life that you feel is keeping your wings folded and grounding you, get rid of it! You have no reason to keep that when you can live in the freedom that Jesus Christ offers. I’m resolving to let my beauty show, even if that means I have to overcome some fear to achieve it.
Fear is not of God, right?
If that is the case, who is with me? Let’s let our beauty dazzle the world!
