I love butterflies. Their delicate, painted wings seem to diffuse a dancing sort of serenity in any scene. Today I saw one. It was pristinely white. Exquisite. Striking anywhere, but even more so by it's particular backdrop: a putrid gutter, pitch black with slime and rot.
This timeless symbol of new spring life and transforming hope was fluttering just scant inches above such filth and muck. This spotless creature was in the gutter, utterly surrounded by it. And yet, it was unmarred. It could pass through and come out safe and pure. What a powerful picture. In that moment of seeing, my mind flies. Lord, can I too, pass through this often-ugly, usually-crude, pain-filled and fallen world, and still come out spotlessly pure?
Most days that doesn't feel to be the case. In fact, the Bible says that can never be the case. All have sinned and fallen short...stumbling or being shot down into the slimy gutter of sin and pain.
But the Bible says something else, too. Jesus' righteousness covers me. I am washed clean...white as snow, in fact. I stand before the Father spotless. Pristine. I was once a grimy caterpillar, but no longer. I will fly with Him in eternal hope and endless life.