During training camp for the World Race, we had to partake in a “surrender walk.” We each had to find something in the wilderness that would represent what we would be surrendering to God. I chose a turning leaf that reminded me of seasons changing, which represented the World Race. I needed to surrender the race to God and whether or not He wanted me to go. On my surrender walk, I saw a web in a tree.
It wasn’t a spider web, but a web full of caterpillars in cocoons. I immediately thought of a novel I recently read (Ocean’s Apart by Karen Kingsbury) where in it a mother tells her son that caterpillars spend all their lives scooting along on the ground, barely making it. One day the caterpillar gets very tired and builds a room and goes to sleep, thinking that maybe his life is over. Then God does an amazing work and gives the caterpillar a second chance at life and freedom, and the dirty little caterpillar is a beautiful butterfly that can now fly—no longer scooting around in the dirt. I was touched when I actually saw the caterpillars and I really didn’t even know why, just the thought of second chances and the beauty that God does with caterpillars transforming into butterflies.
The day I told my fellow teammates that I wasn’t going to be doing the World Race, they encouraged me and prayed for me. After the prayer, my friend Gretchen came up to me and said that during the prayer she saw a hand open and butterflies coming out. It was as if God had come and stood before my very eyes. I couldn’t believe it. Butterflies?! After I had just seen the caterpillars and had been so touched. I was the butterfly that was given a second chance at life and freedom.
I recently realized, however, that it wasn’t just one butterfly. It was multiple butterflies. God showed me that He was going to use me to help other caterpillars find Him and their way to becoming a butterfly, their way to second chances. Many young women are going to be given second chances by God to have a life of freedom and love, through Christ.
And whose hand are these butterflies coming out of? None other than my Savior’s.
God is good. And He is alive. If you don’t believe it—go out and look at some butterflies.
