Complete Transformation

Recently, God has been speaking to me about the lifecycle of a butterfly.  But let’s begin by looking at 2 Corinthians 5:17 (TPT), which reads, “Now if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Everything is fresh and new.”

God is speaking of COMPLETE transformation here. And this connects to the solid, amazing, life changing, invigorating truth that God revealed and astounded me with as I researched the butterfly process. This truth is so wonderful.  I never saw the depth of this amazingly beautiful yet grotesque and magnificently designed truth until I researched the butterfly and learned the details of its transformation story.

Though I had read scripture many times about being transformed – and I knew it meant radically changed,  I still had trouble believing and applying this truth to myself. Though I understood it to a degree, it remained a lofty, unattainable and out of reach goal for me.  I could see it for others, but it remained a clouded partial truth in my heart. But, as God is so faithful to do, He has provided a wonderfully detailed and crystal clear picture of this complete transformation. When He says we are a NEW creation in Christ and the old is gone, that is EXACTLY what He means! 

Yet because of my past, my internal beliefs that I was different, made less than, didn’t belong, and wasn’t worthy, discolored and clouded my ability to understand and see the fullness of this truth. In my thinking, transformation applied to everyone else, but was out of reach for me. I thought it rested in me “making” it happen. Thus leaning on my own efforts to transform.

Let me share with you the astounding revelation, about the transformed butterfly. Recently as I have been painting this process on Dyed4you silks named “Transformed,” God has me showing every stage of the butterfly’s transformation, which serves as a reminder, and testifies that in Christ, we are COMPLETELY transformed! 

So here is the magnificent yet also horribly gruesome process of the butterfly. It begins as an egg is deposited on a leaf. It is full of potential – in more detail than I had imagined. Right from the start as an egg, long before it becomes a butterfly, God has placed within it some special cells, called imaginal cells. Through the caterpillar stage, these cells are present, but do not grow as they are awash in a juvenile hormone that keeps them from growing. 

But the caterpillar develops, and it emerges from the egg with the main job of being an eating machine. As it grows and continues to digest leaves, it molts it’s skin about 5 times. At the 5th molting, it is a fully grown caterpillar. Then it hangs upside down on a leaf or twig. This final molting is into a hard, shiny chrysalis. Inside the caterpillar’s body hormones release enzymes that actually digest the caterpillar! In a sense, he eats himself! All the parts of the caterpillar disintegrate into a nutrient-rich caterpillar soup. Nothing remains of the caterpillar that we would recognize.

Yet the potential that was placed in the caterpillar from the start as a tiny egg, those special bundles of imaginal cells begin to grow rapidly in the nutrient-rich caterpillar soup. Each of these cells grows into their pre-designed butterfly part – a butterfly leg, tip of a wing, eye, or antennae. Once the cells have matured, the butterfly breaks through the chrysalis in a completely different form! The old is gone and the new has come!  The caterpillar has completely transformed to the butterfly.

So the caterpillar was transformed from the inside out and has become a whole different creature – that is truly mind boggling! With the transformation of its body also came a total transformation of its character and behavior. 

The new butterfly cannot behave as a caterpillar; for example, it lacks the caterpillar parts to crawl as the caterpillar did – now it has wings. A caterpillar was designed to eat leaves and grow. The butterfly has a completely different mouth, or proboscis, that can’t chew leaves, but can only sip nectar. With the new butterfly form and parts, the butterfly cannot revert to caterpillar behavior. 

Scientists say there is evidence that the butterfly may remember some of what it learned as a caterpillar. I did not research that finding any further, but found it to be an interesting parallel for us as new creatures: we may remember some of our past and what we learned through that time, but we are designed for God’s act of complete transformation, changing from the inside out in form, focus, behavior and purpose. 

God has placed within us right from the start a potential to be completely transformed – we carry the image of God from our beginning. He has marked us for regeneration. A complete transformation that releases us from the earthbound caterpillar to soaring heights of a butterfly, but it is all in Him. Will we choose to embrace that truth and allow ourselves to be completely transformed by Him? And to personalize this I had to ask myself, “Will I let go of the lies and misbeliefs that have bogged me down and held me captive, choosing to set my eyes and heart on Him, letting go of the old identity and soar with Him into the adventure of the new identity?”

Whereas I thought the transformation depended on my abilities, I see He means a complete and utter transformation that rests in Him. The old has been swept away, and the new order is here. I can choose to leave the earthbound caterpillar perspective and grow from the nutrient rich past. (Experiences, self-image planted by God; truths there, but shrouded in the earthbound beliefs and understanding I might carry from my caterpillar, leaf eating, twig crawling perspective.)

Our transformation in Him leads to so much more! We can soar above the earth-grounded caterpillar view to lofty new perspectives and truths in Him. There is much freedom, joy, revelation and new space here. We are free to float, flutter and fly with Him in new ways. The sense I have from this astounding process is that we are totally entwined with Him as a new creation, full of freedom and new life to explore and live. 

So even though the caterpillar stage may prove messy and even painful, our encouragement is to not settle for the life of the caterpillar. God has far more for us if we hold onto Him and allow Him to transform us into who He designed each of us to specially be. Embrace the new butterfly parts and character. Savor the sweet nectar you were designed to feed on; float, flutter and fly even closer to Him on new wings, fly in His freedom  of complete transformation.