“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV.

Close your eyes and picture a caterpillar—however you wish it to look. Is it green? Fuzzy? Striped? Now imagine it crawling along on the dirt, small puffs of dust rising up, as it heads towards a milkweed plant to devour. To reach the leaves, the caterpillar has to climb up the plant on its tiny little legs. Once it does, it munches away faster than one would think possible for it, and soon the once pristine plant is in shreds. 

Now close your eyes and picture a butterfly of your choice. Perhaps it’s a lovely monarch, a cute swallowtail, or a beautiful blue morpho? Next, imagine it fluttering effortlessly in the air, drifting down to land on the same milkweed. No longer does it have to crawl on the ground to reach its food, but rather it flies up to it. And instead of gobbling down the leaves, they delicately drink the nectar of the flower—which helps to spread the plant’s pollen, which creates more life for the milkweed plants.

For the caterpillar to change into a butterfly, it had to go through a metamorphosis, which it did by being in a cocoon for a couple of weeks. Once the weeks are up, the caterpillar is changed into a new creation–a butterfly!

So, what does that mean for us? Well, we Christians are much like butterflies. Before we were saved, we were like the destructive caterpillars. But then we met Christ, and we decided to change and believe in Him. Because we placed our trust in Him, he transformed us into new people under His authority and freed us from the sins of this world. So we are now like butterflies—beautiful masterpieces that display God’s redemptive power and spread new life.

 Yet we tend to forget that we are new creations and not old creations. When we make a mistake we can often think we’ve gone back to being a caterpillar and grow despondent. For example, let’s say you pick up a book that looks interesting to you at the library and decide to check it out—even though there’s a part of you that’s hesitant. You get home and begin to read, and it’s got you hooked, but there’s still something off. Then you get to the end of the book, and the story takes a blasphemous bent and portrays Jesus in a highly disrespectful way (or does something else horrible). You close the book and feel terribly guilty. Why hadn’t you listened to the Holy Spirit’s prompting not to read it? After this happens, you might feel like you turned back into a caterpillar and are no longer a new creation.

But here’s the thing: butterflies don’t turn back into caterpillars. It is physically impossible for them to. Now, a butterfly could act like a caterpillar if it wanted to, but that doesn’t make it one. A butterfly that crawls on the ground doesn’t cease to be a butterfly, and neither does a butterfly that tries to eat leaves—though it could fall into harm or grow ill. So instead of feeling guilty, confess and repent for your mistake, and pick yourself back up and keep flying. 

After all, you are a beautiful butterfly, not a crawly caterpillar.