Two different thoughts on the same thing.

I'm not sure what spawned the conversation, but for just a few minutes last night Coley and I had a conversation, almost in passing, that should be passed on. For some reason or another butterflies were brought up. I told Coley they were my favorite way of thinking about how God changes us.
We're told in Scripture that, "17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17. Nothing, in my mind, depicts this better than a butterfly. It starts as a caterpillar, a sluggish little thing that goes about its day serving it's purpose. It does have a purpose, for sure. We all have reasons we're here long before we accept Christ. Everything that little caterpillar does is in preparation for a cocoon.
It now curls itself up, makes it home to transform, and waits. Who knows what goes on in that cocoon to make the caterpillar into a butterfly. It's a marvel in and of itself. But then the butterfly breaks free! It is nothing like it's old self. It even goes by a different name. It moves different. It eats different. It protects itself differently. And here's the kicker for me: It can't go back. No matter how hard the butterfly tries, it can never take on the form of a caterpillar ever again. It doesn't do anything that even resembles it's old life.
In the same way when we take on living for Jesus, we become a new creation. Everything changes, and we can never go back. And really, who would want to? Once you've experienced that freedom and grace of a butterfly, why would you want to return to a caterpillar?


I have an odd tree outside my house. We planted it when I was young, maybe a couple years old, and for years it was just a lemon tree. It grew to be huge, overshadowing most other things in our yard. It became a landmark for people: "It's the house next to the one with the huge lemon tree out front". Then something funny happened about five years ago. To our amazement, it started producing other food. It was now our lemon-grapefruit-orange tree. Why did this just now happen? Is that even possible; well it must be because I see it. God chose to wait all these years to let that fruit finally come out. We enjoyed it for these last few years, as did our neighbors. Unfortunately, a storm this last winter tore the tree apart. It's now shriveled, bare, and producing nothing. Despite our care to it, it still looks pretty sad. Green leaves are finally starting to show promise, though.
Isn't this too how God works? He waits years sometimes for us to bear new fruit, good fruit, and then a storm strips us of everything we bore. But now it, too, is a new creation. It's something it never sought out to be, and it's growing in it's new roots. I hope I can say the same after a storm has rocked me. After the anger with God fades for stripping me, after the confusion of why He does what He does, or questioning that there had to have been a million other ways to make His point but that way... May I grasp my new roots, and start to show promise, too.

Proposals

Maybe it's because I got engaged last week, but as I read the story of the Passover meal (as I had to write a paper about it) I was struck by the proposal of it. I'll just simply post my paper:

The Jewish people had been saved from Pharaoh's grip so many generations ago, but here they were again entrapped by Rome's ruthless hands. Even in this oppression the Jews had continued the traditions that Moses started those many years ago. One of the most significant of those traditions was the Passover meal.
Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem despite the threats against His life and told His disciples to go and prepare for the Passover meal. He knew this would be the finale of His ministry. It would be the meal that His disciples would later reflect on and say, “Oh, that's what He was talking about.” It tied everything in, so to speak.
The Gospel of John is the lengthiest of the accounts, and also one of my favorites. In chapter thirteen, Jesus prepares for the Passover feast and the first thing He decides to do is “show the full extent of His love.” (1:1) How amazing it is that it's not here where Jesus dies to show the full extent of love. No! It is here that Jesus wraps a towel around His waits, grabs a basin of water, and washes His friends' feet. Peter feels unworthy, and really He should. This is the one task that even slaves were allowed to decline doing for their masters. And here! Here was the Master of the Universe before him washing his feet without question, without even asking; as if this was a common thing you were supposed to do for your friends.
The other thing that strikes me about this account is how Jesus refers so strongly to His leaving, and the disciples just not getting it. Jesus must have seen looks of sadness creep over their faces because in chapter fourteen He comforts them. But there's history to these comforting words. Starting in verse two He says, “In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may also be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
We all may have heard this passage at some point but what I've learned about it changed the way I view it. This was the common Jewish proposal speech. There would be a dinner where all the couple's friends and family would be and the man would pass the woman a glass of wine – if she drank of it, it was a yes – and then he would return to his father's house and build an extra room for his new family. So you see, these houses were built with many rooms from many generations. After he built this room he would return to the fiance's house and say this very passage that Jesus quotes. The Passover meal just turned into a proposal. We are to be as intimate with Jesus as we are with our spouses. We are to love Jesus day in and day out and give our lives to Him as He gave His life for us.
Jesus isn't someone we spend time with on Sunday mornings, or even just in our “God time” in our days. He is someone we are to invest in life with. If we spent as much time with our spouses as we did with Jesus the divorce rate would be much higher than it already is. I suppose I should speak for myself. I don't spend as much time with Jesus as I should. I don't take this proposal seriously. The Passover meal – Communion – should be viewed as a renewal of our vows to Jesus. It should be a reminder that the God of Creation loved me enough to want to spend the rest of eternity with me and sacrificed His very life to buy my life of sin.