BROKEN WINGS AND NEW THINGS

I found this little half eaten swallowtail butterfly tattered and battered at roadside a few weeks back after a lovely visit with a friend. I carried him back on my coffee cup. I left him safely tucked in my front porch plant away from predators and googled what to do when so much of a wing was missing. He still waved his wings... there was hope. I like hope.  And I like to bring hope.

I've been blessed to have had such great times of it.

Bringing hope-- it brings one hope.  It's another amazing circle of life.

I had a glimpse into the beauty of this cycle of hope with some little critters about 5 years ago. Little bits of life that God used to complete the circle of hope in me.

A timid WALKING dragonfly that was sitting in the middle of our yard that wouldn't yet fly?  He rested in our little makeshift bucket home- safe and away from predators. And later that evening when he was good and ready we thrust him into the air and yes...he soared up into the sky and away.

The big fat bumblebee that kept WALKING and circling about my vegetable garden? I put him in my garden close to some flowers and nectar so he could rest and eat. I gardened and gardened. And then I watched him take off a few hours later.

I loved those beautiful tender times. Those times were the moments God spoke into MY little battered spirit and spoke His hope right in. The times I called out to the little creatures, "Don't you know you can fly?" and then heard as God echoed back into my spirit the very same words, "Don't you know YOU can fly?" He's saying it to us all. We're made to fly.

 I know it. It's hard to dream when you are  focussed on surviving. But when you find you're safe, you're loved, you matter.. you REST. And then you dream and fly again. That's for me. That's for you.  Please rest in that today. You are safe, you're loved, you matter.

But my butterfly? He did NOT fly. He was not just resting to go from surviving to soaring again. I didn't realize it but not only his wing was ripped. He'd been really torn and eaten up inside. His body had a big gaping hole in it that I could not mend. In fact the ants were there all marching in.  I saw it as they completed a circle around him. This was not the circle of hope but the circle of life.

And I DID NOT LIKE IT. NOT ONE LITTLE BIT. I had completely expected THIS story to go as per my other encounters. Rescue, rest, fly. Happy ending. I LIKE happy endings.

But NOT for this butterfly.  My hope was a little battered.  

I lifted him up and shook off the ants. I brought him to a new little resting spot-- this time not hidden at all. I put him on display on our Japanese Maple. His wings were such a beautiful contrast to the tree. Indeed he was too pretty to bury. He needed to be seen and recognized for the beauty he had brought. So I called my kids to see the amazing colours of this swallowtail up real and close. They enjoyed it's beauty and then they moved on. 

​But ME?  I had a hard time moving on.  I didn't completely get it. AT ALL.

The words are still coming to life in me but I want to share it even as I process it for myself. There is a message in it I know.  

Sometimes we have to let dead things go. We have to release what can't be. We have to be ready for things NOT to work out the way they did BEFORE.

YOU SEE.. IT'S A NEW THING.  NEW.
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We have to allow things to be cut back. Cut back sometimes so much you almost can't see what was... so that the new life can be free to spring up.
 
We have to be ready to relinquish and release. EVEN if that something that was before was oh so very beautiful.

Because NEW things can't be received and grown and sown and shown if we are still holding onto the old. 

There's something new ahead for all of us. HE's always up to something NEW.

I hear Him whispering it over us all. "It's NEW. It's NEW." Behold I am doing a new thing. 

There's newness in your relationships, there's newness in your home, there's newness in your impact and influence, there's newness in EACH day you get up. IT'S NEW.

We've got to let go of how things happened before.

We've got to let His words of life grow in us. 

It's NEW. It's NEW.  It's NEW for you.