The caterpillar crawls along the crooked cement sidewalk, inspecting every crevice for some piece of bark or leaf under which to hide. His alarm radar is high; a blue swallow encircles the air above, and he is hungry. Even the caterpillar's foul, yet protective, odor can't save him now. His only hope is for a brisk wind to blow a leaf or other means of shelter his way.
Do you ever feel like this caterpillar, as if the only hope you have is beyond your reach? Maybe you're sitting at your desk today wondering how your life has taken the turns you've experienced lately. Or perhaps you are at home—bored and indifferent to the routine of living—wishing you could just start over.
Like the caterpillar, many of us spend huge amounts of time crawling through life, searching for some external covering to meet our deepest needs.
Some of us have suffered physically and have been taunted beyond what seems reparable. Others of us were scarred emotionally because of our parents' words or our spouse's accusations. Still others of us drag behind us a trail of spiritual defeat: never really breaking through to experience God like we've been told we could.
Wherever you are at this moment, understand that hope is within your reach. As a matter of fact, hope is not something you have to look for. No amount of money, no transformation of your appearance, no job or location change, and no alteration to your spouse or family will be the escape—the protective covering—that you seek.
The covering you're searching for is found not in external things, pursuits, or even your good habits. When we accept Jesus Christ as payment for our sin and ask for His forgiveness, He changes us internally. He exchanges our old selves for new ones.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come."
The moment you and I receive Jesus as our Savior, an inward change begins to erupt. It's similar to the change that a caterpillar undergoes in its metamorphosis to a butterfly.
1. The caterpillar realizes even its built-in protective mechanisms cannot protect itself. That is why it searches for shelter in its environment. What part of your environment—your steady job, your stable plan for the family, your appearance or your talents—have you sought shelter in?
2 . The caterpillar survives for a while, but ultimately realizes its efforts to hide are futile. As it slides from bark to leaf to shade, a caterpillar will eventually exhaust itself. Are you tired of the life you've been living? Have you grown weary of the mechanisms—achievement at work or school, approval from friends, etc.—you've used to hide who you really are?
3. Throughout its life span, the caterpillar sheds its outer layer of skin several times. In our futility with the lives we lead, however predictable and safe they may seem, we often try to shed the struggles and pains we've experienced. With our exfoliation we try to rid our lives of their cyclical, mediocre pace. Are there lifestyle changes or thought patterns you have tried to "throw off" in an attempt to make yourself happy with your life?
4. Ultimately, the caterpillar's life changes dramatically by no effort of its own. Known as the "pupa" stage, the time period when a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly resembles resting; the caterpillar does not eat, increase in size, or show any signs of outward activity. At the right time, however, a great deal of internal metabolic activity occurs. It's this internal activity that changes the caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. Have you stopped and asked Jesus Christ to do internal work, by coming into your heart, that you simply cannot do?
Much like the unseen transformation process of the caterpillar, the change that occurs when we give our lives to Christ frequently goes undetected. Unfortunately, because we're not aware of what the Lord has done inside us, we keep barreling through life as we always have, failing to factor in that we are completely different—changed by the Creator Himself.
The King James translation of 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The Greek verb tense used for "passed" signifies a one-time event. What you once were is dead, and that is final.
The perfect tense is used for the "new" transformation that has taken place in your life. Your new life is in the process of emerging. It has begun, and God will continue to shape that new life until you meet Him in heaven.
Therefore, when you think you have to settle for your experience with God as it is now (that it will never go deeper), it's a lie. When you don't believe you will ever break through the strongholds from your past, you're being deceived by the father of lies—Satan. And when you trust in the external things such as how you look or what you do to measure your worth, you are discounting the truth that Jesus Christ's new birth inside you is the only thing that defines your value.
To a confused Nicodemus, Jesus described spiritual birth as if it were wind. In John 3:8 He says, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Once you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you cannot change the fact that you are a new person. Whether the wind of your new life is a slight breeze, a stormy gust, or something in between, the truth is that the wind will never die out. Your relationship with the Lord is meant to be exciting, changing, and new with each day.
Consequently, we are frustrated when our relationship dictates a standstill, when our once vibrant faith seems stale, and when we are discontent with life as it is but unsure of how to proceed. Kim Thomas, author of Living in the Sacred Now, explains:
"We have dipped our toes into the waters of faith, but kept a safe distance from the demands and responsibilities of deeper waters. We just keep our lives moving. As long as we are controlling things satisfactorily, our spiritual needs are reduced to a simple good night prayer . . . 'God,' we pray, 'don't woo me to the deep end.'
"We wonder, after years of this practice, why our souls are leaking and our faith is failing. Unmoved to cultivate the richness of a spiritual life, we have lived a polite, shallow faith, and now find that we are unprepared for the depths of sorrow, anger, betrayal, and disappointment we sometimes face."
Like the caterpillar clamoring for safety, we stumble through life looking for salvation when the Savior we already know waits for us to turn to Him. And when we turn, we see a portrait of our real selves in His reflection. We are needy people who have been blessed with the answer to our needs; He lives within us. No longer are we the disgruntled, insecure, afraid caterpillar. Instead, we have a relationship with the One who is molding us into the gorgeous butterfly we yearn—and were created—to be.
-Dr.Charles Stanley
