Two days ago, Andrew brought a caterpillar in from a bush outside his window. He placed the fuzzy creature in a habitat made of gladware, a little dirt, a few leaves and some sticks. He carried around the caterpillar many times and even dropped it 3 or 4 times. Somehow the furry critter survived. I attempted to coax him into setting the caterpillar free but he wouldn't dare. So, I relented and told him he could keep it.

Yesterday morning he woke up and visited the creature. He played with it a majority of the day and even took it walking. When we returned, he placed the caterpillar back into his captive environment to sleep for the night.

This morning, the same scenario happened except I got up to check on the caterpillar and thought it was dead. However, upon closer examination I noticed that it was weaving a cocoon.

Hmph, I thought to myself. We're going to get to watch a metamorphosis. Interesting.

As the morning progressed, I thought it would be nice to spend the day with someone familiar. Ashley came to mind. She wanted to visit with us too and I was so glad!!! I was able to share with her some of my fears and self-doubt and she willingly lent her ear.  After a wonderful day with a beautiful soul, we went to her house to do a small devotion. By the way, keep in mind she had no clue that we were babysitting a caterpillar in our home.

She shared with me about the metamorphosis of a caterpillar (of all things) and how everything happens in God's time. Just as a cocoon doesn't need to be opened too early, neither do we need to rush God. She told me that sometimes we need to look to other people to see what they see in our lives. Many times others have insight into our lives and can reveal to us things we ourselves may not see. She reminded me that in due time, God's plan for my life would be revealed and to not get ahead of it. God's brought me this far and He is not going to let me go. In fact, I am holding on to Him stronger than ever before.

I also learned from her that she is quite the entrepeneur on metamorphis of caterpillars! She had a caterpillar farm and learned that whenever a caterpillar is put into captivity, it weaves itself into a cocoon pretty fast. Every once in awhile you will get a butterfly, but more often than not, it crawls into his protective shell and dies never emerging into the beautiful thing it was ultimately meant to be.

The lesson learned is that we have two choices.

1. We can crawl into a cocoon and protect ourselves from life and remain comfortable and warm and in a protective environment. There's only a 50/50 chance that you'll escape what you're running from. or

2. You can stand up and face your demons and plunge forward knowing that all things will happen in God's timing. You can not crack open the cocoon of a butterfly or else it will surely die. Likewise, we can not rush God either. We will never meet our full potential and could end up in a spiritual death.

I wonder how our little pet caterpillar will do? I noticed he made some progress on his cocoon and has almost halfway hid himself into his protective weave. I wonder what the end result will be? He's rushing things because he feels threatened in his Gladware environment. Maybe he'll come out a beautiful butterfly? Maybe not. Hopefully he won't crawl into his weaved hole and die.

Would it behoove my blog if I shared with you that our home group bible study was basically on the same topic? What are we afraid of? What prohibits us from being all that we can be? What holds us back? Are we scared of risk? Will we step out of our comfort zone and follow God's will for our lives?

Sometimes, you just have to wait and see. Perhaps our little caterpillar will make it. I would like to see him crack open into a new world====seen with different eyes and experience it in a different way. Oh...to be a caterpillar and go from a crawling creature to beautiful velvety critter with wings. But how pitiful it will be to watch him crawl into his protective shell and perish.

Oh ..... what would it be like to fly!!

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