Today I get to share my butterfly story! I’ve been eager to tell it, but I knew all along I needed to patiently wait for Easter. If I hadn’t shared some of my previous stories, this Easter story would not make sense…like the summer the butterflies entered my life.
Once upon a time…ten years ago…I was in search of something. I needed a theme for an art exhibit to be displayed during the reception of my program, Life Revealed. I am a very determined person and will search at great length to find what seems to be the perfect choice. Well, I was stumped. Several themes came to me, but none of them had the spark I desired. Then it happened that summer during a trip with our church’s high school handbell choir. We were on tour giving concerts across the country. I had purchased small items to give each member of the group as part of our devotions before the concerts. The first night I gave each person a butterfly replica before guiding them in Centering Prayer. The next morning, after showering in my host family’s home, the humidity of the shower caused an etching of butterflies to appear up high in the skylight. The church hosting our concert that night served us dinner in their fellowship hall. The room had no decorations, just tables and chairs, and a small netted cage in the corner beckoning me to glance inside. In the enclosure was a butterfly cocoon in the process of metamorphosis. The next day the woman hosting me overnight had decorative rhinestones, shaped like a butterfly, on the side of her glasses. Day after day these sightings occurred. Walking around town on a free evening, butterflies appeared in storefront displays and also begged my attention as a woman approaching me on the sidewalk was wearing a large butterfly brooch. By now it was beginning to seem ridiculous. The final day as we returned home, our group ate dinner together. Towards the end of our meal the song playing over the speakers was about butterflies. I wasn’t familiar with the song, but it did frighten me a bit that butterflies were following me everywhere! Reflecting on that week woke me up to the art exhibit theme I had been searching for. The life cycle of the butterfly made complete sense in relation to our own life journeys. There is more to the mystery of this story…to be continued tomorrow.
Build on, and make thy castles high and fair, rising and reaching upward to the skies; Listen to voices in the upper air, nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Therefore we have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life. -Romans 6:4
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Bread for the Journey 
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