Today, June 8, 2009, I watched a beautiful thing happen. It was the first time I had ever witnessed such a site. I am sure you are wondering what it is that I am so awed about, so I will tell you.My sister, Grace, is fascinated by caterpillars and is often bringing them inside. (Much to Ma's distress.) She once brought in two extremely fat ones that had what looked like metal spikes all over it. Then, one day, she brought in three interesting black ones with red heads and a wee bit o' yellow. She put them in a jar with some grass and a screen over the top and left them. After a few weeks, Grace came to me with a puzzled expression on her face, "Where did the caterpillars go?" I looked in the jar to find that there were three cocoons on the walls of the jar. I told here that they were inside these and she was relieved. (Mother told her about the life cycle of a butterfly later on.)
After a month of the caterpillars being in the jar, Grace called me outside. Two butterflies were awaiting release from the small jar! As we released them, the third cocoon began shaking vigorously. We watched in awe as the cocoon broke open with an audible click and out came a wet, deformed-looking butterfly. We let it crawl onto my arm and I put it on our tree. We watched as the butterfly's wings slowly unfolded and dried as it drank nectar from the flowers on the tree. 
It was the loveliest of them all, though it waited longer. Though it was once an ugly, black caterpillar and had to stay in its home all alone for a long, long time, it emerged a pure and beautiful testimony of God's awesome handiwork.
It was the loveliest of them all, though it waited longer. Though it was once an ugly, black caterpillar and had to stay in its home all alone for a long, long time, it emerged a pure and beautiful testimony of God's awesome handiwork. We could all learn from the butterfly.
(Mourning Cloak Butterfly)
