Growth or Transformation?

I wonder if caterpillars’ new years’ resolutions are to be the biggest and best caterpillars. They might never dream of flying. Their dreams crawl on the earth, but their Maker has a different design for them—to take them to the heavens.

My goals for this year differ little from the caterpillar. Please, Lord, just make it better than 2020. A low ask, am I right? My caterpillar goals are to get more done in less time, and be the best at my chosen work, or in the words of a caterpillar: chew the most leaves and grow the most in girth.

Sometimes I’m a super-religious caterpillar. I resolve to give out the most leaves to the less-well off caterpillars and not take as many for myself. But what if I’m content to crawl as the “most humble” caterpillar but am not looking for the crucial transformation I need to wing my way to the blue sky? What if my “doing” is holding down my “becoming?”

Maybe this new year, we can turn our vision upwards rather than horizontal. Get alone and get quiet in a cocoon with the Creator of caterpillars and butterflies. Ask Him to shed the bulging, old desires and to breathe alive the slender, strong wings of the Spirit. What if we ask the Lord of the Heavens what He wants to make of us this year – and then fly with it?

It takes much more time than a year. It would have been better if we started last year. We will certainly look and act awkward hanging there in the transition and then trying our new wings, only to fall down. But to emerge, to climb the sky at last, and to grow in grace and glorious freedom is worth every ounce of energy.

We could avoid the dying of the cocoon to keep eating and remain the merriest of caterpillars. But the crows can spot fat insects a mile away and will not spare even the kind caterpillars who would not let God transform them.

Let us surrender to God’s design and ascend to a higher view of life, a butterfly’s view. We were made for this transformation, and God will not let us go until we join Him in the wide, open sky. Let us begin. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV