Butterfly hope

I picked up my dad at the airport yesterday and for someone 89 years old who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease he seemed to have made the flight just fine. But in talking with him on the way back from the airport, he seemed obsessed with his ultimate demise and told me that last week he made his own funeral arrangements and paid for the entire funeral. I already knew that because he had already told me the same thing twice before when I talked with him by phone.

I remarked that it seemed like a rather macabre thing to do, but he countered that he didn’t want me to have to worry with it. I thanked him for being so thoughtful and tried to change the subject and brighten things up by telling him that he would probably outlive us all, but he brought the conversation right back around to it, this time telling me the casket he picked out for himself was just beautiful and was first class in every detail.

Jeez This entire conversation just seemed ghoulish to me, but I decided to engage and nonchalantly asked him if he had crawled inside it and checked it out. He looked at me like I was crazy and in a perturbed tone told me, “Of course not!” “Well I was just wondering if it was comfortable” I innocently chided.

I’ve always thought that funerals were a rip off. The Bible tells us that our spirit departs when we die and our body returns to dust from whence it came and to waste a lot of money buying lavish caskets, vaults, and crypts and then spend time staring at someone’s empty body seems absurd. I think in those terms because I know that our spirits are trapped in fragile shells and are just waiting for the day that they will be released. When they are released, nothing remains in that body; it’s like a hatched out empty cocoon left behind where it will biodegrade and disappear.

I gave a speech one time in Atlanta Georgia at a fundraiser for the Covenant House, a wonderful organization dedicated to helping homeless children. After hearing how God transformed my crazy life, a saintly elderly African American woman came up to my wife and me after my speech and told her that I was just like an ugly caterpillar that God had miraculously turned into a beautiful butterfly and allowed to fly away. She laughed heartily and gave my wife a big hug and me a big smacking loud kiss on the cheek.

I kind of look at our lives on this earth in similar fashion, one day we will experience a metamorphism and all of the ugliness of sin will completely disappear, as will our aches, pains, sorrow, and sadness. They will just be distant memories that totally disappear as we soar away like beautiful butterflies.

In a few days we will celebrate the birth of Christ. In all the shuffle of frenetic shopping at crowded malls, buying gifts, seeing Santa, watching nonstop football games, overeating and visiting with our families and friends we sometimes forget the reason for the season. Keep in mind that we celebrate His birth because when our spirits are released from our shells, Jesus Christ will personally meet us and safely guide us into heaven where we will reside with Him FOREVER.

Caution there will be no ugly caterpillars allowed in heaven. If you want your butterfly wings you must put your faith in Jesus Christ the only Son of God whose birth we will celebrate this Saturday. It’s easy to be saved from eternal ugliness, simply accept Christ today and come soar with us to the heavens

Romans 10:9
…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved.