Everyone that knows me knows how much I love butterflies, so when I saw the filter on Snapchat it was a no-brainer that I took a picture. It also reminded me of how amazing and beautiful butterflies are. I always loved them because of how they transform from caterpillars into these beautiful, unique creatures. Something about the butterfly is mesmerizing to me. When I see them, I instantly have a smile on my face as I take in their colors. As I started to think about them I decided to do a little more research because I felt that there was so much more to them than what I was seeing with my eyes. I realized that the creation of a butterfly is much like our spiritual walk. Let me share with you why I believe this to be.

 

I learned that butterflies start off as eggs and their egg shapes are dependent on the type of butterfly that laid that egg. Once the egg hatches we get to see the caterpillar that was inside. It could have been a positive word someone said to us, or act of kindness we encountered that laid the egg of our transformation, but it was how our journey of change began.

 

As a caterpillar all it does is eat. It even begins the process by first eating the leaf it was hatched on, which is why it is important to choose the leaf wisely. They begin to grow as they eat, but because their skin does not stretch they grow by shedding the outgrown skin several times. Let’s look at that from a spiritual place. When we start out we are crawling, or rather just slithering our way through life trying to eat. We have to be careful where we decide to hatch ourselves because if we are not fed properly, it could lead to our demise. As we are feeding ourselves and beginning to grow, there are going to be areas of our lives that we will need to shed. That could be old habits, people, or even pounds for all I’m concerned. Haha! If we don’t shed when needed it could stunt our growth and again, lead to our death (not being literal here). Every time we grow, we will need to go through that shedding process all over again. It might be painful, but it’s necessary. 

 

Once the caterpillar is done growing they form into a pupa. To us, it looks like it is resting but on the inside it is making a transformation or a ‘metamorphosis’ as I’d like to call it. The body of the caterpillar changes into a beautiful butterfly all while in the pupa stage. I think as we go through a metamorphosis ourselves, sometimes we need to take some time and rest. Get quiet and do an internal change. People may wonder what’s going on, but what they don’t see is that we are growing our wings. 

 

Once the butterfly comes out of the pupa, the wings are soft and folded against its body. It rests for a while then it begins to pump blood into the wings so it can fly. When we first transform our lives, we are going to be fragile. We are going to need our heart and mind fully engaged to combat those that will be trying to take us out so we can fly above them. 

 

Adult butterflies are constantly looking to reproduce themselves and that’s when the process repeats itself. When we get to a place that we are flying like a butterfly, we should be looking for others we can mentor and pour into so we can reproduce what we have on the inside of us into someone else. We have to put them on the right leaf so they can eat and get the right nourishment for their growth. 

 

See, I knew there was a reason I am so in love with butterflies. They speak to my spirit! I am a butterfly and so are you!