Behind the Design: Created for a Purpose
Let me tell you, I love that butterflies are trendy again! Even when they weren't, I loved the symbolism that butterflies have always evoked: new beginnings, unexpectedly emerging beauty, and endless possibilities.
When I was in first grade, our school put on a program about insects, complete with songs and choreography and costumes. I was a firefly, and that meant we wore all black and did a dance waving around glowing sticks, which in hindsight was pretty cool (I would've enjoyed it more if I had gotten the pink glow stick, but I was stuck with neon orange, a color that reminded 7-year-old me of my brother's play construction vest. Yuck!) But really, the heart of my unhappiness with being a firefly was that I wanted to be one of the beautiful, graceful butterflies with their big, fluttery wings (which were a much more refined and elegant dark orange) and their sparkly antenna headbands.
Now obviously, I was being vain and jealous (cut me some slack, I was still of the opinion that "princess" was a legitimate answer to the question "what do you want to be when you grow up?"). But, in more slightly more mature ways, I do the same things today.
I look at my life as a firefly (which might, to an outsider look awesome-- a sleek black turtleneck, neon glow sticks, a glow-in-the-dark dance routine) and long for the life of a butterfly.
But here's the thing: the butterfly wasn't always a butterfly. It was first a caterpillar--squishy, new, and hungry--and then it spent about 240 hours of its life in a chrysalis--a place of secret growth, quiet formative days, and a whole lot of waiting.
That's not a shock to anyone. Even little first-grade firefly Faith knew the process through which butterflies were created. But here's what I didn't fully realize back then: the same God who develops the caterpillar into a butterfly is developing me too.
Maybe you're in a stage where you feel new and squishy and hungry--for something more, for something real, for something bigger.
Maybe you're in a stage of quiet learning, or slow-going growing, of waiting that feels like it will never, never end.
Maybe you're in a stage where you feel like you've found your wings. Like the growth has paid off and now you have this beautiful ability to take flight--to do the thing you were created to do.
But no matter what stage of the journey you're in, remember that the God of the universe, the God of growth and beauty and butterflies, is developing you into who you were created to be.
All the love,
Faith