Inspiration From an Unlikely Source

November 12, 2024

“Let your Spirit soar.”
“Spread your wings”
“Be bold and beautiful.”

These are the words from my shower curtain. A friend and I saw it and she said, “you should buy it.” This story came to me as I looked at the words and the butterflies.

When I worked in the Outpatient Rehab Department at St. Francis, my co-worker brought a jar and set it on the counter. It looked just like a stick to me with something dead on it. Rose was a remarkably curious person and remarkably caring. She was the kind of person to think of such a novel item for our office. The jar proved to provide entertainment for the day. It happened when I assisted a patient who came with her young son. As she and I talked, he interrupted with a shout and said: “Look Mom!!!” The dead-looking object became a beautiful butterfly right before our eyes. I had never seen that happen. The transformation was beautiful, and all the people in the office came to see what had happened.

Tiger Swallowtail

I decided I would make the butterfly my next blog. You will see more of the “why” as this story progresses.

“I need to talk to Julie Pasta because she raises butterflies,” I said to myself. I prayed as I drove to Wednesday night Bible study. “May I know who to sit with at supper and may we have a great conversation.” I still work to overcome shyness which began as a young child. When I arrived, right on time, only one person was there and so I sat down across from Al Riddle. He teaches at the school where our church meets. I asked him about his classes, and we had a discussion of the different subjects he teaches—as diverse as personal finance for seniors and biology for ninth graders.

A lady came to our table and sat down next to me. It was Julie Pasta!

“Oh, I wanted to visit with you.” I told her my blog idea and the story behind it.

“Now,” she said, “let me tell my story.”

“I was in the living room and waiting for someone to come and I saw this flutter outside out of the corner of my eye—a butterfly, one I had never seen before! It was even more unusual to see one in November; they are usually gone by mid-October. Then I went outside on the deck and got a closer look, and I saw that it was not a Monarch, and I saw the identifying marks of a Queen butterfly. I ran and got my camera, and I got up close to get pictures of it. Then I knew for sure it was a Queen. It is not native to Kansas, usually in the southern part of the United States and I had never seen one.

Queen butterfly - (The one I saw Wednesday)

I wondered who I was going to get to share it with. I had to tell someone. Then I sat down next to you, and you said, ‘I want to talk to you about butterflies.’

Julie told me there was one year, about seven years ago, when she raised 300 Monarch butterflies. Not since! She plants the things they like to eat, and she usually gets Monarchs and Black Swallowtails.

Black Swallowtail

“I bring the caterpillars into my butterfly house on my deck when they are first hatched, and I provide host plants for them to eat, August-September. I observe them at the caterpillar and chrysalis stages. Once they hatch from the chrysalis stage, they are ready to go.”

Then Al joined in because he teaches biology, and he loves the study of butterflies. He said the amazing metamorphosis from egg to caterpillar to chrysalis and then to butterfly speaks of God as Creator. The annual migration of Monarchs to Mexico covering thousands of miles is another amazing fact he shares with his students as evidence of a Divine Creator.

Monarch

In my late twenties, I studied the apostle Paul’s book of Romans and though I had been brought up in church, I understood my faith in a new way. A verse stands out to me as a connection to this discourse about butterflies.

Romans 12, verse 2 is where I get the butterfly connection.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

When Paul says we are not to be conformed to the world around us but be ‘transformed by the renewing of your minds,” this word is metamorphoo, from which comes the English word metamorphosis.

“A creeping caterpillar is transformed into a soaring butterfly . . . Ordinary people can receive power for extraordinary change.” (The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People,” by John Ortberg)

I see it as a combination of God’s work and our work. He changes us as we take in His words of scripture. We then live it out and prove His perfect will.

The renewing of our mind—the sowing of the scriptures—letting them take root in our minds and thoughts is how I see it. Jesus spoke of His words as seeds. Let’s plant His thoughts.

Through taking in God’s Word into our minds, we can “test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

The butterfly gives us a picture of how amazing a change God can bring about.

Buckeye

Credit to Julie Pasta for here photos of the butterflies.