Insights about caterpillars

Today I am inspired by something in the first section of this week's Bible Lesson, Probation after Death. How appropriate that it is a reference to a chrysalis. There is much to learn from a caterpillar's journey. This is what I am pondering:

1. the caterpillar and the butterfly are not two.
2. the caterpillar does not die, it transforms.
3. change is necessary and good, it is a divine activity, spiritual progress.
4. the caterpillar doesn't sit around and wait, it eats and eats. (Remember The Very Hungry Caterpillar story?) We don't sit and around and wait for healing, we study and pray and listen.
5. the caterpillar puts aside its limitations for butterfly thoughts.
6. the butterfly pushes on the walls of the chrysalis until it yields.
7. every caterpillar is born knowing what to do.

Mrs. Eddy writes: "Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of the material senses, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever present, is becoming understood". (297)

So let's respect the lessons of the caterpillar and apply them to our own spiritual journey and transformation. This whole section of the Lesson is about faith, faith to walk in the path where God is leading us. Many of the Bible characters did and they accomplished amazing things. Let's shrug off our self-imposed limitations and soar to new heights of understanding.

Mrs. Eddy also writes that 'every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger'. It's not the trial...it is the trial of our faith in God. As I face today's challenges I will think about my faith in God, in His ability and willingness to comfort, guard and guide me. And I will think about the chrysalis. That time of quiet isolation when I am alone with God, protected from any outside interruption. Something is happening, even if it is not apparent from the outside. There is change and progress. That is what I need to have faith in.