The following is NOT the traditional story about becoming a butterfly, but it IS a new point of view of already being a battered butterfly.
This late summer we had the privledge of raising a monach caterpillar. My friend Rachel gave us one that had hatched from an egg that morning. I had no idea how to raise it, but with Rachel’s guidance, we were able to watch it grow from a speck on the table to a 2" long very hungry caterpillar. Unlike the popular children’s book, they DON’T eat just anything. They only eat milkweed (and they enjoy a watermelon snack) in which I had to drive a mile away, get some from a field and put a supply in the fridge. At the end of her caterpillar life, she was consuming about 1 milkweed leaf daily.
I had her in a very small jelly jar during this time but I could tell it was getting close to the time for her metamorphosis. So I made a larger habitat for her with two sticks and some milkweed so she could roam around and find a place to hang in her chrysalis. Would you believe she decieded to hang from just the side of the plastic cage? Like a spider, she spun silk that stuck like glue to a plastic side. I didn’t even need to put those sticks in there and I dare touch the cage in fear she would fall.
Well, what began as a science experiment, then turned into a spiritual lesson.
About two weeks later, she came out. That’s when I knew she was a girl – she was light colored, on the small size with no black spot on the back hind wings. She was beautiful! I was told the first 24 hours they are not hungry so I could keep her and watch her before I let her go - so I did. But when we attempted to set her free, she couldn’t fly! WHY? 
The poor thing just fluttered on the floor. Then I noticed her wings had not formed straight but curved. I suppose the sticks I left in her cage prevented her from spreading her wings straight when they were drying. How would I have known? I had been afraid touch the cage when she was changing because it seemed like she was just hanging from a thread on the side and I didn’t want to chance her chrysalis from falling. I thought I was doing the right thing!
I contacted an online monarch association whom explained that her wings are pumped and dried within the first 10 minutes. I was sleeping then when that happened. The best thing I could do for her was to keep her indoors and give her a sponge with Juicy Juice and every other day put her on outside flowers so she could drink necter and not ferment.
Well, for the past 3 weeks that is what I have been doing. I guess you could say, we have a pet butterfly! All the kids can hold her and she climbs on them. 
Josiah loves her the most and has named her "Cutie."
The other day when I was out there, two perfectly formed butterflies came prancing over my mangolias almost in a playful game of love catch. I watched them and pondered, "What a sad little life our little butterfly has". She has never known the company of another caterpillar or butterfly, nor will she ever know what it is like to use her wings and be what she was created for – to fly free! She tries and tries, but struggles on the floor and in the meantime her wings are slowly being ripped to shreds, which just make things worse for her. But now, after 3 weeks, sometimes it seems when I put her on a flower she has learned not to fly. She will just sit there for a while. When she does try to fly and falls, if she is close to a flower, she struggles to climb up the stem to the top. The flower stems get in the way of her flapping wings, hindering her, making it difficult to climb, and further destroying her beautiful wings. Not only that, but the amount of energy she puts out with all that useless flapping on the ground, makes her even more tired and hungry for nectar in the end.
Though I feel my ignorace has made her in this condition, still she would have been dead within a few days if it weren’t for me taking care of her. And I always make sure my 3 cats are INSIDE when she it outside feeding on flowers and fluttering on the ground.
I feel God using this butterfly experience for me at this time in my life. I feel like I am meant to fly, but the things of this world have caused my wings to not grow straight. I struggle on the earth’s floor, fluttering madly - wanting flight, but in the process my wings are getting battered. I would have died if it were not for the Loving hand of the Lord who picks me up and brings me to the high places of beauty where I can feed and get refreshing nourishment. There often, like my handicp surrendered butterfly, I may sit on the flower and not try to fly for a while. Instead I sit quietly, soaking the fact that I’m where I need to be and God is providing for me. But then I want to break free I begin trying to fly on my own again. I can’t! I am still handicap with the scars of sin on my wings. As I flap my wings on the floor, I use up so much God-given energy and it just makes me more hungry in the end. God gently, picks me up again, and brings me back to the place of His provision. There, back on the top of my flower, I feel like a butterfly. There and only there, do I feel like a butterfly.
God is speaking to me that throughout this pregancy (being 41 years old) and trying to sell our home. He says that if I care so much to keep a poor little butterfly alive, who has a life-span of no more than 6 weeks, won’t He do the same and much more for me who is His child and that he bought with his blood and whose soul is eternal?
Though my sorrow goes out to my little butterfly, she’s probably the most loved butterfly in all Medina County. Unknowingly to her, we love her. We talk to her, hold her, provide for her, and when she seems done with the nectar from the flower patch, we take her in and put her in a very large plastic clear container with a sponge of Juciy Juice and fresh flowers and grass to make her feel at home. Oh, she flutters and doesn’t like it – she wants to be free outside to roam, but there are hidden dangers outside. She knows nothing about being on the ground and we are protecting her. Not only from our cats, but other critters that roam plus streets she could go into.
Again, this reminds me of the Lord. Often, after an experience of pleasureable provision from the Lord (like the butterfly on the flower), I begin struggling again and this time the Lord seems to put me in a boxed enviorment with provisions. Oh, I often don’t see the provisions. I only see that I am boxed in and want to get out. The box is see-through so I am able to see what I want outside God’s provision, but the Lord keeps me in to protect me from the outside unknown dangers that I am unable to see. I need to stay satisfied with what God has provided. "Godliness with contentment is great gain," (1 Tim. 6:6)
And do you think this butterfly has a clue that I’m trying to help it? Well frankly, I am not sure. Sometimes she seems that she knows me and clings on to me and other times she seems like it just wants to escape and fly. Often I say to her, "Hey, don’t you know I’m trying to help you?"
I’m sure God feels the same way about me. How many times does it seem that all I want to do is cling on the Lord, but then shortly after I try to do things my way when God is saying in the background, "Hey, don’t you know I’m trying to help you?"
The lifespan of a summer butterfly is anywhere between 2-6 weeks and we have had this one for 3 weeks now. I think we are doing pretty well, don’t you think? Maybe the Lord is keeping her alive just to teach me more through taking care of this helpless, and often seemingly ungrateful butterfly.
So, this has been my butterfly experience. Today I noticed that her wings are almost gone on one side and her color is faded. My heart cries out for the lost beauty of this little one but after 3 weeks of watching her struggle to be what she is suppose to be yet never taking flight, if she could understand I have this to say to her:
You are battered, but loved;
Fragile but protected
Your beauty has faded but you speak volumes of the beauty of the Lord.
The Lord is taking care of us daily! Taking care ofyou daily! We don’t see it and often we struggle to try to take care of ourselves (as the world tells us to do). Maybe you now see yourself with curved wings and are unable to fly the way you want to. Perhaps you are someone who has been struggling and since then your wings have become battered and maybe even almost completely destroyed by the world. Remember that your Heavenly Father in Heaven sees, knows and will take care of you. Stop trying to fly when you were meant to walk. We will all have our wings to fly (figuratively speaking – not like angels) when we get to heaven and see Jesus face to face and become like Him. For now, I think we ALL are handicap butterflies with battered wings who just want to take flight in spiritual truths. Our sin keeps us fluttering on this earth, destroying our wings in the process and leaving us tired and hungry for God even more. Become a butterfly who is surrendered to the provision of the Master’s Hand. Learn to gain nourishment and sit quietly on God’s provided flowers of your own and soak in the SON!
To see photos of our pet butterfly journey, please check outhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/40626232@N00/sets/72157602134520062/and then press select "View as slideshow" on top right-hand side and then when it’s done loading, click the "i" icon in the middle of the first picture and it will display the text descriptions with the pictures of our journey thus far. You can use your mouse pointer to navigate the slide show by pressing the arrows to the right & left-hand sides. Please enjoy them!
One more thing…sad but true…ironically, the day after I wrote this (now Monday at 1pm), we went outside to find the butterfly, and it was gone. All the kids joined in trying to find it because with the few fallen leaves, she looks more like a leaf than a colorful butterfly. But with much searching, we are unable to find her. Our cats are in, but perhaps some other mishap has happened to her. Josiah is crying for his "Cutie" as if he has lost a dear friend. It is strange how the Lord pressed on my heart to write this insightful parable of the butterfly, and then seem fit to take it out of our lives the next day. But the lesson I have learned and memory of "Cutie" will live in our hearts and minds forever.
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