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2 Corinthians 5:8 – to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.
Most people are afraid of death. They spend their entire lives protecting themselves from it and spend an incredible amount of money trying to delay it…but in the end…death is inevitable for all of us.
Earlier this month, I experienced the death of a new friend Steve McGregor. The night he passed away, I had a peculiar dream. I dreamed of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
The process amazes me how God completely takes one species and creates another. It also amazes me that this transformation is accomplished within a physical form called a chrysalis. Caterpillar goes in…butterfly comes out.
Like the butterfly, I believe we also go through a similar transformation. But the difference is how we attach meaning to each phase.
Those who don’t know Christ, view the chrysalis as their body and their life. Even when the butterfly emerges, their friends overlook the butterfly and mourn the loss of the chrysalis.
However, those that do know Christ, view the chrysalis for what it is. It is the place where God does the work of transformation from sinner to saint. So when the time is ready, God calls the saint to emerge from the chrysalis and what emerges is larger and more beautiful than what went in.
What Christians celebrate is not the death of the chrysalis…but the birth of the butterfly! A whole new creation that has been liberated from its earthly beginnings!
I believe God is in the business of creating butterflies!
I know we will all miss the beautiful and familiar chrysalis that we all knew as Steve McGregor. But I also know that he is much larger, much more beautiful, and happier now to be free of his chrysalis and to be the creation that God designed him to be.
And that is truly worth celebrating.