There are many different kinds of caterpillars, but they all (?) have certain things in common, namely: they are not beautiful to look at; they crawl everywhere they go; and, inevitably, they get themselves all tangled up, as shown in the above photo.
I know this amazing story has been told many times before. But I have never yet told it, at least, not in the depth and detail which was showed to me, today, by the Spirit of God. So, here we go.
Caterpillars are free. That is, they are free to go wherever they want -- so long as there is a surface they can crawl on. For, you see, caterpillars are by nature earth-bound.
And because they are earth-bound -- and they are not very quick on their little toes, they are easy prey for many different kinds of predators.
Did I say that caterpillars are rather unattractive creatures?
And they are not very smart. In fact, at some point in the course of their mundane, earth-bound existence, they are virtually driven by some unknown impulse from deep within their own being, to crawl out on some limb, where they just sort of hang around and do nothing else but slowly spin a hair-thin web about themselves.
What could they be thinking? What are they trying to do? They must be trying to close themselves off from the world. Maybe, they have grown fearful of being eaten by everything else out there. Or, perhaps, the monotony of their eat-sleep-eat existence has become too wearisome to bear any longer; and they want to just get away from it all. Or, they're just bored.
At any rate, they keep wrapping themselves in their web. After all, each thin strand doesn't really seem very substantial; they can get out of this mess whenever they please. Right?
So, they just keep doing what they're doing. But, before long, they're closed away behind a tightly woven curtain which binds them fast, and which separates them from the great big world outside.
There they remain, unmoving, isolated, alone. All work has ceased, indeed, all activity ceases in the self-made cocoon.
The cocoon represents those complicated, intertwined circumstances which, in nearly every case, are created by one's own choices and actions. The caterpillar's isolation and inactivity represents the condition of many, who find themselves cut off from the world; thus, they become unfruitful, unproductive.
The cocoon-phase of the caterpillar's existence represents a kind of spiritual dying to oneself.
I have often been reminded of Moses, who, after he fled Egypt, ended up in the desert, where he spent the next forty years of his life tending sheep and goats. Have you ever thought about what that must have been like, for Moses? Moses was a prince of Egypt. He had it all. He had the world by the tail, as it is said. He had wealth, power, education, influence, access, opportunity, pleasures. But he threw all of that away. And for what?
Some day, I'd like to write a book about Moses. But that will have to wait. I merely want to get your mind to thinking about the spiritual parallel between Moses's experience, and the dormant state of the caterpillar. For, in the deserts of Midian, Moses was in a real sense 'dormant'. Sure, he had a family to care for, which he did by tending goats and sheep. But there was evidently nothing else for Moses, in Midian, which could be called meaningful work.
Moses suffered a profoundly deep experience of spiritually dying to himself, during his forty years in Midian.
Time passes. For all. Even for those who are half-conscious in their cocoon.
But make no mistake: it is not the passing of time, which brings any desirable change. The passing of time causes metals to rust and people to age.
Rather, it is the passing of one's time in the hands of God, that changes the person.
It came to pass, after forty long years, that Moses had his burning-bush experience. But have you never wondered how it happened that Moses was so close by Mount Horeb, on that fateful day? In fact, I believe Moses virtually camped out at the base of Mount Horeb -- for forty years. Moses was desperate to find God. And Mount Horeb -- which was called "the Mount of God," was the only place where Moses knew to look for Him.
The caterpillar, at length, has died to himself, in his miserable little cocoon (metaphorically speaking). But it died according to God's plan for that creature; it died in the hands of God.
But meanwhile the caterpillar was in the process of that spiritual dying, something else was happening, too. For, the old creature had to cease to be, in order that a new creature could emerge from within the very same corpus of the creature that once was.
A new creature was being born, even as the old creature was dying. And, behold, the new creature is possessed of a different nature -- having powers and abilities very different from those of the old creature.
Similarly as, in the old creature, an unknown impulse from within that earth-bound creature compelled it to wrap itself up, to bind itself, to imprison itself, in a cocoon; now, from deep within the new creature arises an irresistible impulse, too. But, this time, the impulse is not to bondage, but to liberty, to freedom! The new creature, moreover, is now equipped to obey and to follow that impulse.
Whereas the old creature had only tiny feet; the new creature has -- wings, and large legs! And it uses those to press against the prison walls; which walls were strong enough to hold the caterpillar, but not the butterfly!
The new creature takes a little time to adjust to its new-found abilities. And, then --
No more crawling from here to there. No more scary face staring back from the surface of every watering-hole. And no more hiding out under leaves and twigs, trying to escape every hungry mouse and snake.
A marvelous transformation has occurred. Though the price was very great, yet, it was worth it in the end. Or, should I say, in the beginning -- of the caterpillar's, I mean, of the butterfly's new life.
The caterpillar's freedom is limited to earthly things. The butterfly possesses earth -- and heaven.
The caterpillar is unsightly. The butterfly, beautiful.
The caterpillar is vulnerable to many different predators -- which the butterfly does not fear.
The caterpillar, inexorably, dies -- one way or the other. But who knows the end of the butterfly?
All through the wonderful grace and working of an all-wise God.
"Wait patiently on me, saith God. Soon, you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left. You shall come forth unto Me, and you shall be all that I have created you to be. Saith God."
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