On Wings Of Eagles

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Saturday, March 12, 2011

Reminders in a Butterfly

Luke 12:6-7 (New International Version)



6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. 7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.


As she ran errands with her children one spring day, Kaylyn Dunne was thinking about this. She had just returned from a weekend retreat that used the butterfly as its theme. The retreat had aroused her desire for a deeper spiritual life, yet worried her too, because she had been asked to be chairperson of the next retreat. Kaylyn had never been chairperson of anything, and she felt quite inadequate. With her already crowded schedule and a chronically ill son to care for, was God really calling her to do this? She needed a sign.



"Mom, look!" her son suddenly exclaimed from the back seat. Kaylyn almost hit the brakes. Fluttering in front of her, inside the car, was a huge monarch butterfly. It was a vivid yellow, her favorite color. With the car moving at 45 miles per hour and the windows open barely a crack, how had it gotten in?



The winged visitor quivered around delicately, then landed like a little puff on the dashboard. Awed, the children stared at it. "It must be frightened," Kaylyn told them. "Open the windows, and let it fly out." They did, but despite the breeze, the butterfly stayed. Kaylyn pulled into the library parking lot. "Let's leave the windows down while we're gone," she suggested. But when they returned to the car, the monarch was still sitting on the dashboard, as if awaiting them.



Bemused, Kaylyn finished the errands, drove home, opened the car doors, went into the house with her enthralled children, and waited. Eventually the butterfly leisurely emerged, circled the house in a kind of embrace, and flew off. "I got to thinking of the timeliness of its arrival, right after I had prayed," Kaylyn says. Did God intend it as a sign that He was near? That He had plans for her to move more fully into life, to shed her cocoon and spread her wings? Kaylyn accepted the chairperson job, and it became her path to a richer spiritual life. Since that day, butterflies seem to visit Kaylyn often, especially when she needs encouragement. One of the best encounters came when a friend held a prayer service in her living room for Kaylyn's son. One of the group pointed to the front window and exclaimed, "Look outside!" Everyone did. Tapping gently against the glass was a brown butterfly. Just a coincidence? Perhaps. But it came in the middle of a snowstorm.



Flowers, rainbows, butterflies. Nature’s tender treasures. Perhaps God uses them to bridge the barriers between heaven and earth, to let us know that as He watches the sparrow He surely watches us.






Dear Lord we thank You for caring for us. We thank You for the examples that you leave for us in the Bible to give us comfort when we need it most. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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