Easter Through the Parable of Butterfly

As a butterfly ascended overhead, one caterpillar alleged to the other,



"You'll by no means get me up in one of those things."



Yet for all caterpillars the time comes when the push to eat and grow collapses and he instinctively begins to form a cocoon around him. The cocoon hardens and you'd think for the entire world that the caterpillar is dead.



But one spring dawn the life inside the cocoon begins to wriggle, the top splits open, and a beautifully-formed butterfly surfaces. For hours it will stand broadening and drying its wings, moving them sluggishly up and down, up and down. And then, before you know it, the butterfly soars in the air, effortlessly riding the currents of the air, alighting on flower after dazzling flower, as if to show off its flamboyant colors to the bright blooms. .

Somehow, the wonder of the butterfly never loses its enthrallment for us. Because the butterfly is a living parable of the pledge of resurrection.



On Easter dawn the disciples saw Jesus' grave clothes lying on the cold block still wrapped round and round the dead body. Only the corpse was gone, much like an empty cocoon deserted by a butterfly that has left to soar free. "He is risen! as He said," an angel told the skeptical disciples. Later that day he materialized to the disciples, and then, over the itinerary of the next few weeks, to as many as 500 people at one time. Even "distrusting Thomas" didn't doubt for long that Jesus was really raised from the dead.

A few weeks before I lost a friend who had happen to be dear to me. Where she had been so full of life, now her body lay motionless, composed ever-so-carefully by the morticians. I looked at her and motioned about my own transience. One day I too, like her, may brawl a losing battle with pain, and die.



What do we Christians pronounce in the face of death? There are many mysteries. But two things we be familiar with for sure. First, death is an adversary. Away with the schmaltziness that vainly seeks to camouflage death's insult! But 2nd, and more important, Jesus' restoration from the grave is God's proof to us that demise is not the end. The empty crypt and Jesus' Spirit within us testify that Easter dawn is God's triumph over death. And eventually, Jesus promised, God will raise from the deceased us who believe in His Son



Why do Christians congregate on Easter dawn? To show off their fine clothes or give a ceremonial tip of the hat to religion? God prohibit! Rather we congregate to celebrate Jesus' victory over bereavement itself. For since He is our peer of the realm and our Savior, His triumph is our conquest. In celebrating His restoration we celebrate our own assurance of definitive triumph over death.



Thus the, Easter through the parable of Butterfly.