In the last issue we looked at a pair of lovely moths and a pair of beautiful butterflies, but these are only examples of the hundreds of thousands the Creator has made.
What do they look like when they are first born? They actually hatch, for they come from tiny eggs laid by the females. There is a great variety of moth and butterfly egg shapes—some are smooth, others are covered with hair, some are flat, and still others are round or oval.
These usually hatch in just a few days, but instead of a pretty butterfly or moth coming out, it is always a caterpillar (larva) that hatches. This is the part growers of vegetables and flowers don’t like, for the caterpillars immediately start eating leaves, flowers and buds. They can do a lot of damage, but quite often they eat invasive or useless plants too. Some of the caterpillars become food for many birds and other insects. And some caterpillars are camouflaged to protect them from their bird and insect enemies.
As the caterpillars grow, their skins become too tight and split, to be replaced by looser coverings. This may happen several times. They finally attach themselves as cocoons to leaves or plant stems with a silk-like thread drawn from their heads. In Japan, silk moths are raised from cocoons in great numbers for their silk threads, which are used to make silk clothing.
Before very long, the caterpillars reach a changing point in their lives. Some make burrows in the ground that they crawl into, and others crawl into curled-up leaves. Still others stretch out on a plant stem and spin a silk covering around themselves and the stem. In contrast to this, others do not make this kind of a cocoon but just attach themselves to a twig with a few strands of their silk thread, forming what is called a chrysalis. It may have patterns that make it look like a leaf or some other part of the plant.
Inside the cocoons or chrysalises, these creatures begin to change from a caterpillar to a moth or butterfly. In the spring they come out of their temporary homes—this time having wings, which at first are wet and soft. But before long their wings begin to unfold, and now they are no longer caterpillars but fully developed moths or butterflies. When fully dried, they fly off and are the rest of their lives beautiful specimens of God’s creation—no longer pests.
The beginning Bible verse tells of a wonderful change promised to each of us who knows the Lord Jesus as our Savior. As we think of lowly caterpillars becoming something beautiful, how much greater will be a Christian’s change in that wonderful time! Will you be included in that change?