Earth and Heaven

Paul writes: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.

Romans 1:20.

Of all the creatures God has made surely none speak of how God can transform something earthy into something heavenly more than caterpillars being transformed into butterflies.

This caterpillar:

becomes this butterfly:

There is no obvious connection between any caterpillar and the butterfly it becomes. Unless someone told you, there is no way you would think that that caterpillar could turn into that butterfly. Apart from the obvious lack of wings and a very differently shaped body, there is not even a colour shared between the two.

John says:

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

Paul casts more light on the meaning of this astonishing creation:

³⁵ But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” ³⁶ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. ³⁸ But God gives it a body as he has chosen and to each kind of seed its own body. ³⁹ Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory.

⁴² So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ Thus it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ But it is not the spiritual that is first but the physical and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man was from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ As one of dust, so are those who are of the dust, and as one of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we have borne the image of the one of dust, we will also bear the image of the one of heaven.

The caterpillar is a picture of our lives in the physical bodies we exist in now. The butterfly is a picture of what we will be like in heaven. There will be a body but the spirit (wings) will be the prominent thing. What is invisible now about you will be displayed in all its glory there.

When you look at these butterflies and their corresponding caterpillars notice the following:

1. There is no way of knowing what butterfly would emerge from what caterpillar.
2. The caterpillars crawl along the ground with their heads down eating. Some of them have false eyes looking up to ward off predators.
3. The defense mechanisms that the caterpillars have:
   • False eyes,
   • Horns and spikes
   • Camouflages (one looks like bird poo!)
4. The lack of defense mechanisms in the butterflies.

So it seems caterpillars do a lot to preserve their lives but butterflies do not seem to see a need to do this.

I found this clip on butterflies in Mozambique. You will need to be able to access BBC iPlayer (from a UK server and you will need to register) to get it or you can watch it on the U & Eden channel on Sky. It is taken from the David Attenborough narrated Africa series episode 4. The relevant part starts at 09:20 and ends at 13:35.

Thousands of butterflies emerge from pupae deep in the Mozambique rain forest. The jungle is not an easy place to fly or find mates so the butterflies follow rivers upstream. After hours of determined flying they all emerge to the only open space there is – the treeless peak of Mount Marbu. Up here, free from the confines of the jungle, they hold a butterfly ball. Now they have all the space they need for their aerobatic courtships.

The point is that there are levels to our relationship/intimacy with God and higher heights to press toward.