Graveyards and Butterflies

The window of my dorm room at William Jewell College in Missouri where I attended my first year of college overlooked my favorite place on campus, which, oddly enough, was a historic graveyard on the top of a hill. I wandered through that graveyard, night or day, and often found a tree to sit under to do my homework. Walking through the grass or sitting quietly in that space was never a creepy experience for me. It was peaceful, since rarely anyone else would be there and the ancient gravestones and massive trees made for a mysterious vista.

I read the inscriptions on the grave stones and thought about the people who had lived their lives so many years ago. I wondered if anyone remembered them now, or if they had lived their lives well. I walked amongst the graves imagining what kind of people were buried there and thought about the fact that they were like me at one time, living life uniquely, facing its joys and sorrows with death looming in their future. I wondered if they knew God. Like them, I would someday be dead, and the reminder challenged me to live well.

When in the graveyard, I amused myself by imagining what it would be like to be in there when Jesus returned. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 that when he returns, “the dead in Christ will rise first.” I thought it would be such a sight to see those people burst from their graves and rise joyfully to the sky!

It makes me chuckle to imagine how amazing it would be if I were at a funeral of a loved one when Jesus came back. One minute I'd be crying because of losing them, and the next I'd see my loved one jump out of the coffin, possibly do a happy jig and rise up to see Jesus. The image always made me laugh, but in reality I'd probably pass out in shock. I am praying that if I am not dead when Christ returns, I'll be standing in a graveyard at his arrival so I can see all the excitement.

One beautiful Spring day in 2003, I sat on the windowsill in my dorm room looking out at the hill. I was contemplating how much God had worked in my life during that school year. I remember praying along these lines:

“Lord, I am so thankful for all the changes you have made in my life. It was difficult and dark in the middle of the process at one point, but I feel different now, more...free!”

Feeling slightly melancholy, yet thankful, my eyes were diverted to a cloud of flitting orange shapes near the hill. I focused on them and smiled when I realized they were dozens of orange butterflies! Some years, Missouri has hundreds of butterflies flying around in the Spring, but it was unusual to see gobs of them in one area. I stared at the creatures, watching their festive dances, when it seemed as if God suddenly spoke to my heart and said, “You are like those butterflies!”

I thought about it.

A butterfly starts out as a crawly caterpillar, inching along in life. Its perspective on the world consists of a few inches in front of his face and lives day to day eating leaves. When the time is right, however, the caterpillar surrounds itself in a tiny dark cocoon and lives there for a few weeks, cramped and alone. Even though the situation is not necessarily ideal, this is when the most changes occur.
The caterpillar slowly morphs into a different being altogether and emerges with colorful wings and the ability to fly! The life thereafter is spent flying about with other butterflies, rising up to the sky to see the ground below or to look at the clouds, resting on vibrant flowers and eating sweet juices from the flowers' colorful throats. What a difference!

God works in our lives is like that. Not only does the Lord change us and offer us freedom when we first accept Him as our Savior, but he continues to change us throughout our lives.

Ephesians 4::22-24 says, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

I think of the miraculous work that God does in our hearts as the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Like a butterfly that is given beautiful new wings to float through the air, when we have Christ in our lives, the Lord changes our hearts and fill our lives with freedom and a new perspective.

It was fitting that I saw the butterflies flying around the graveyard. The contrast between delicate, precious, life and the place of death was striking. There were other analogies that I considered while I sat on the windowsill looking down that the curious scene.

I thought of Jesus in relation to the butterflies. When he came to earth as a man, he was like the caterpillar, humbly walking on earth, then he wrapped himself in the tomb of death for a few days, to emerge as the beautiful, glorious conqueror of sin!
The spectrum of our humanity fits into the butterfly theme as well. Even though God does miraculous things in our lives that increasingly give us freedom and beauty here and now, after death, the difference between our new life in eternity compared to the old life here on earth will be as if we emerged into heaven like butterflies from a dark cocoon. Our lives will be as if we had been crawling along like a caterpillar, and after we die and rise in the Lord, he will free us from all the constraints of this world! We will be changed into glorious beings, unshackled from pain, death and sorrow, flying into the arms of our Lord.