When a butterfly looks for a place to lay its eggs, it selects a spot on a plant that the hatched caterpillar will eat. God has given the butterfly the wisdom to know just where to lay her eggs.
Let’s follow one kind of butterfly through its life cycle ... the lovely Monarch butterfly. The mother lays just one egg on the leaf of a milkweed plant. She repeats this on different leaves until she lays 300 or more eggs during her lifetime. A baby caterpillar hatches from the tiny egg in just a few days. It has strong jaws and spends its life eating milkweed leaves, which are poisonous to most creatures. This poison protects the monarch from many predators. Five times in about two weeks, its hard skin becomes too tight, splits open and drops off. A larger new skin has already formed underneath to replace it, which is soft but hardens quickly. At the fifth and final molt, the monarch caterpillar attaches itself by a bit of silk to the bottom of something where it will be safe. It has become 2000 times larger than the original caterpillar. This would be like an 8-pound baby turning into a 16,000-pound elephant in just two weeks! Its final caterpillar skin splits off and the pupa left hanging there looks like a tiny, beautiful green bag decorated with gold jewels.
A great change in the caterpillar’s life now takes place. The pupa hangs there for 8 to 15 days while inside, a miracle takes place. The caterpillar is turning into a beautiful butterfly! When the pupa opens, a full-grown butterfly comes out, gradually dries its wings and then flies off to live a very different life. Its diet now will be the nectar of flowers, which it sips with a long, hollow tongue called a proboscis. When not in use, this proboscis rolls up tightly, like a garden hose, under its head. There are special sensory hairs on the proboscis that help the butterfly find the food it needs.
The life of these interesting creatures is a reminder that God wants each of us to make changes in our lives. We come into the world with natures that are selfish and sinful. But God has made a way for us to be “born again” through the death of Christ on Calvary’s cross. As our opening verse says, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are given an entirely new life. That life is just like the Lord Jesus, and we are to then live our lives like He lived His life. He was always loving, never selfish, and always obedient to God. None of us lives a perfect life like He did, but we are called to this, and He is able to keep us from sin. Do you have the new life God gives?
Did You Know?
When a monarch caterpillar changes into a butterfly, its diet also changes.
Messages of God’s Love 12/14/2025