Butterfly Blessings

I’m fascinated by butterflies. They are such delicate, beautifully colored reminders of hope that float in and around life. Their life is fairly short but the beauty they provide as they flit by is enough to make me stop mid-sentence, pause and just watch until they fly out of sight. My grandbabies and I will stop our playing and outside adventures whenever we see one until they have flown out of view.

When I turned 45 I decided I was finally old enough to do something I’ve wanted to do since my rebellious youth – way before it was cool. I got a tattoo. A beautiful, purple and green butterfly with it’s wings fully extended as if soaking up the sunshine as it dries it’s wings from being cooped up in its cocoon for so long. It reminds me daily, and for the rest of my life no matter how wrinkly it may get, that God has big plans for me.

The hard, crushing periods of life that feel like they could completely destroy me are simply God’s method of preparing me for the next chapter of my life. I’m a bit hard-headed and stubborn, so these periods sometimes feel like they last longer than they should.

But always, through every challenging season, I am reminded that God is always there and he wants the best for me. He wants to make my life a thing of beauty that reflects how much He loves me.

I believe that God sends us butterfly blessings to keep us encouraged along the way. A butterfly blessing is the small, almost imperceivable brushings of God’s reassuring presence – angel’s wings as they surround you during hard times. It’s the reminders in scripture that “I am with you always, even to the ends of the earth”. It’s the amazing colors the sky turns as the sun begins to go down or the rainbow God sends after rain. Butterfly blessings are those beautiful, wondrous things God sends that float through our lives to remind us of His grace, love and care.

Even the plainest, scrawniest caterpillar has been created to be changed. Changed into something far better that its original packaging. And yet, if it had given up when it was hardest – the metamorphoses of the cocoon – its full beauty and miracle would never have been seen.

The lesson from the butterfly is that God can take the ugliness we create in our lives from our own sinfulness and make something out of it that is spectacularly beautiful! We just have to be open to His plan, understand that life will be hard and messy and sometimes feel like it just isn’t worth it, and remember that God’s got this. He knows what he’s doing and he knows how beautiful we can become when we trust the Maker of all things.

I may never know, this side of heaven, if I’ve made a difference in anyone’s life because of my own. I may never know if anyone sees the beauty and glorious color of my life, or if all they see is a fat little fuzz of a creature. But I can know, without a shadow of doubt, that God created butterflies to remind me that He sees the beauty in me, even if no one else does. He is proud of the little creature that I am becoming…as I spread my wings in His light, soaking up the warmth of a Father who loves me just as I am!

If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies  – Unknown