All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16 [NIV]
For the remainder of this week, I am going to consider the last part of the verse. It is about us changing and changing others.
For my birthday I got five Painted Lady caterpillars in a cup. It may sound a bit odd, but it has been great fun. Over the course of a couple of weeks they devoured their special caterpillar food, growing from about 3 to 40mm. One day they moved to the lid of the cup, hanging like little J's, then they shed their skin to leave a chrysalis. I removed the lid, and transferred it to the small butterfly enclosure that came with the kit. Every day I went expectantly to see if the butterflies had emerged, which after a week they did, to my great pleasure.
The butterfly lifecycle has to be one of the most amazing transformations in nature, both in the difference in form and in colour. Painted Ladies are no exception, showing a beautiful orangey-red, white and black pattern on their wings. Unfortunately mine were rather inactive, spending most of the time only displaying the brown underside of their wings. Were they sick? I thought that they may have a virus. They were certainly too weak to release them. Then one day I tried putting a warm light nearby, and they suddenly sprung into action, opening their wings to bask in the warmth and display their full beauty. They were soon ready for release.
God's word does change us. It may be that we have come to know Christ, but feel drab and inactive, only displaying the dull underside of our butterfly wings. Psalm 119:105 says "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path". The psalmist said he had "suffered much" (v107) but he obviously knew where to look for his restoration. Do we?
Jon Seaton
Read the Bible in a year: Psalm 119:105-112, Jeremiah 52:1-34, Titus 1:1-16
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