Beautiful . . . Forever!

(Our Internet service did another of its disappearing acts.... aaaaand we're back! Whew!)

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"Mommy! We found a pupa!" SJ shouted.

The little creature had burrowed down as far as he could into the thick grass, in an attempt to die to live... but he had not bargained on a weed whacker coming through and hurling him out of his comfort zone.

SJ was all bent over to examine this new-found curiosity, when he declared...

"Isn't it beautiful, Mommy? Look at the beautiful colours!"

There was a chocolate brown and burgundy streak down its side (not visible in the photo), and he regarded it with wide-eyed wonder.

But I struggled to see beauty in this dark, twitching, contorting fellow.

Really... I am as curious about life in the great outdoors as any other nature-loving individual, and I like burgundy streaks as much as the next girl, but... beautiful?

Where my wide-eyed wonder go?

The pupa twitched some more while I contemplated this.

I was the girl who would lie on her tummy - in front of any available ant hill - sprinkling bits of  coconut that had been chewed to bits with sugar, and watching 'ant evangelism' in action. Each one reaching one (or more) with the gospel of sweet bits to be stored. I would watch them for as long as I could..... and it was a beautiful sight.

What happened?  The jury is still out.

Once again, I turned my attention to the caterpillar-turned-pupa, and contemplated the life within that was intended to burst forth as wide-winged moth. Ahhh! God is amazing!

The mystery of life goes far beyond my feeble attempts to comprehend it, but this one thing I know for sure.....

LIFE is beautiful.

"Maybe we should put him back, cover him up and see what happens," I suggested.

SJ agreed and I gently nudged him - using a small stick, FYI ;) - back to his original spot. 

We covered him up with grass clippings and hoped for the best, but it was not to be. Ant evangelism had already been set in motion, and within minutes it was clear what the outcome would be. :(

It is true that nothing lasts forever on this side of the eternal world - not even the beautiful - but while pupas and moths fade into nothingness, we live in hope of a Resurrection Day still future.

Hear Paul preaching hope:

"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:14-17)

He speaks with certainty of a change that defies the power of carnivorous ants...

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

In Christ, there is hope of a change that will last and a beauty that will not be fleeting.

I look forward to the time when the definition of life will make no mention of a progression toward the grave.

A time when He that sits upon the throne will make all things new (Revelation 21:5)

... and all life - absolutely all life - will be beautiful... forever!