Teach Us to Number Our Days Days of Transformation

Teach Us to Number Our Days

Days of Transformation

  

Life wasn’t always this beautiful.

The worm had to be transformed.

 

Awhile ago, Sandy and I took the grandchildren

 to Maumee Bay State Park.

Part of our adventure was the Nature Center.

Outside the Center was a screened gazebo

where there were Monarch Chrysalis

hatching into butterflies.

We were all amazed at the transformation process.

Think about it for a minute…

Monarchs like to lay their eggs

on the leaves of very small plants.

As this egg hatches, it becomes a caterpillar.

Think of the life of a caterpillar crawling

around the earth eating green leaves.

What a life!

What is it that brings the caterpillar to

a place of entombing itself in a chrysalis?

The process is amazing –

 it looks like a final act of suicide

as it hangs itself in preparation for

what seems to be a final struggle.

In a matter of minutes, from its body

a chrysalis begins to incase itself.

When this struggle is complete,

the caterpillar seems to be cut off

from the world around it-food, water

and you wonder if there is any way

possible it could get air.

The life of the caterpillar has come to an end.

Its simple life is over!

But wait there is movement in the chrysalis tomb.

A new struggle is taking place;

a fight for life - a breaking free.

Paper thin gold and black wings begin to unfold

and soon what was born on the very smallest leaves

and lived crawling on the ground,

now flies high above the highest trees.

That’s transformation!

That’s what the Holy Spirit can do for you.

In Isaiah it says…

“We shall mount up like we have eagle’s wings.”

God wants you to know His will - and to know His will,

you will have to see as He sees from heaven above.

When you and I see the world

as God sees the world, you will cry.

He does not give us this insight

without the power of the Spiritual Gifts.

Check out this website for amazing butterfly pictures and videos of their transformation:

http://cawthra-bush.org/BIOLOGICAL/INSECTS/Monarch_Butterfly_Rescue_2007.htm

Scripture Reading

 Romans 12:1-8 NLT

And so, dear brothers and sisters,

I plead with you to give your bodies to God.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will accept.

When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?

2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world,

but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Then you will know what God wants you to do,

and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

3 As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning:

Be honest in your estimate of yourselves,

measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.

4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function,

5 so it is with Christ's body.

We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do.

And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other,

and each of us needs all the others.

6 God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well.

So if God has given you the ability to prophesy,

speak out when you have faith that God is speaking through you.

7 If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well.

If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching.

8 If your gift is to encourage others, do it!

If you have money, share it generously.

If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. 

 And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.