The Butterfly Inside

Every now and then God allows a momentary glimpse of the spiritual world.

For some reason, J has been asking questions about dying over the last week or so. He has asked questions before but not over an extended time like this. Perhaps, now that the excitement of Christmas is over, he is beginning to process what he learned about Newtown.

On the way to school this morning, he asked what happens to the brain. At school they have been learning about the body and what each part does. We have talked about the spirit (the who you are inside, as I explained it to J) being separate from the body and he seems to accept the idea if not understand it. I think he could not align the idea that our "who we are" leaves the body when we die, but that the brain stays behind with the rest of the body.

Can I just say "wow"? I am amazed at this little boy! And glad in my heart that he is thinking beyond just this physical world that we live in.

After I got done stuttering, I told him that, while we use our brain to send the signals for thought, our actual thoughts and opinions are a part of the "who we are inside" with the spirit. Being a "word picture" person, I wanted a visual to help him understand how they body and spirit separate. I thought about the tent metaphor, but that didn't feel right. A tent is temporary and can be taken down and put back up many times over.

Then it hit me:
Our bodies are the chrysalis surrounding the spirit. We all start out as caterpillars. When we come to know Jesus, our spirits begin to change and grow. The more we become like Jesus and the more we become like the person God created us to be, the more like butterflies we become. When we are finally finished becoming butterflies, we (as J says) explode out of the shell! The body (the chrysalis) stays behind, empty.

Then J said something important: "So then the butterfly either goes up or down."
Ahhh, there's the tricky part. If you are not a Christian, you don't have Jesus in your heart to start changing you to be more like him. If you are not growing and becoming the person God made you to be, you can't become a butterfly.

So what about people who don't believe?
Well, what happens if a bird catches a caterpillar and eats it? Does he become a butterfly? Nope. He died still a caterpillar. And only butterflies can go to heaven. And that is why it is so important to let our friends know about Jesus; so they have a chance to believe in him so they can become butterflies too.

Later in the day I was thinking how ugly our sin makes us to God. And then I thought about this little talk with J and realized that God created us to be amazingly beautiful butterflies. We can achieve that if we follow Him with our hearts.