Change and Transformation

There are some big fat stripy caterpillars clinging to the tree trunks on the farm.  Gradually the last couple of weeks we have seen them, one by one, transform into beautiful butterflies.  Their cocoons are left behind, strewn on the ground beneath the trees.  They have taken flight to visit the many flowers around us. 

The girls found some tadpoles in the river last week.  With great excitement and enjoyment they scooped them up into their little buckets.  Each day they run outside to see if they have turned into frogs yet. 

We also go to see the chicks every afternoon, to give them corn and refill their water trough.  Just a few weeks ago they were small and fluffy and it was easy for little girls to cuddle them.  Now, in such a short space of time they have grown fat and changed their feathers to adult ones.  It won´t be long before they are laying eggs.  

Today a Mum brought her little baby son for a check-up.  He was just 14 days old, the same age as my new little nephew.  He was so tiny and cute and brand new.  I wonder what the days, weeks and years ahead hold for him.  

All around us the world is brimming with new life, change and transformation.  When I feel weary, when my life seems full of changes I had not anticipated, when I wonder what on earth is going to happen next, it does me good to lift my eyes and look out of the window.  Looking at the butterflies reminds me that our God is a God of transformation.  The butterflies give me hope when things look bleak.  The frogs croaking in the evening remind me of the miracles of nature that God weaves every day in myriad ways, and the miracles He is weaving in the lives of those around me.  The chickens flapping and clucking show me change is a part of life, and an exciting part.  The tiny baby makes me stop and stare and wonder.   

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” God tells Jeremiah (1V5).  More than any animal, each human baby is so precious and special to Father God.  

Each patient, whether young or old, fat or thin, attractive or smelly is infinitely precious to God. 

I am infinitely precious to God.  

May God grant me His love for all His children I come into contact with.  May He endow me with wisdom to know how to respond to the changes in life, and may He fill me with His peace, joy and hope.