Butterflies- God's object lesson in my backyard

Rach, I thought of you when we took these photos and wanted to share. Rob took the zebra swallowtail's pictures yesterday in our sunflower patch. SOOOO beautiful. You can even see where something has taken a chomp on him, but yet he's still here to grace our yard with his beauty.

After Rob came home from a bike ride the other day, this pretty butterfly came for a rest on his bike handles. I loved the beautiful blues in his wings.

Of all God's creatures, this is probably my favorite. I love their grace & beauty. I love how they love flowers. I love watching them unfurl their proboscis to drink and how gracefully they flutter their wings. Most of all I love their life cycle. It is so symbolic of what God does to us if we allow Him. We are in a growth process, from an egg to larvae to growing caterpillar (some of us prettier or uglier to the natural eyes than others- but God sees the beauty we will become, the beauty inside us even when others or ourselves don't). And then there's that whole metamorphosis process. A hard time of change & growth that produces something new & different than the creature that was. A bit of the old creature is retained, yet it is more beautiful than anything before and this creature brings beauty, grace, joy, and pleasure to others.

There have been some chrysalis moments in the past few months for me. Hard months with lessons to be learned, changing to be done in my heart & mind, growth and changing in who I am as a person. I hope I emerge from this time some kind of beautiful creation that pleases my heavenly Father, that brings love, joy and peace to those I am around, and that I become a more beautiful (not on the outward) person for the process.