Why Butterfly?

After reading my post on her love for butterflies, my sister Aie messaged her answer to my unasked question of why she loves them.  

"It all started when I got me a picture book [Hope for the Flowers] written by Trina Paulus in the early '70s. God's Word in another language. It takes a lot of butterflies to make a world full of flowers!"

Boom! That jogged my memory; details came back. I have that same book. Aie and I would discuss it with our late friend, Daisy, during the "flower power" era.  

This book resonated with us then because we were still trying to find our place in the sun: moving from a seeming rut to a dynamic, fulfilling life. 

"Hope for the flowers" is categorized as a children's novel, but for me—like the books Jonathan Livingston Seagull and The Little Prince—it is a fable, an allegory, that is more for millennials today and upwardly mobile young professionals, rather than children. 

The main character, Stripe (a caterpillar), does not truly know what he wants. All he desires is to escape from the humdrum of perpetual crawling and leaf-eating. 

When he sees many caterpillars climbing towards the clouds, he decides to climb with them to reach the top, too, even if he has no idea what is there. 

In my encounters with millennials, many have no plans or goals for the future, because they don't know what they want and where they want to go. 

They embody Stripe, who follows the crowd, leaving the dull life behind, and blindly hoping for the best. In the climbing, he steps on others, but he does not care on whom he steps as long as he can inch up ahead of them.  

Then he meets Yellow, and Stripe's perspective changes. 

Although they share the same doubts and uncertainties, Yellow and Stripe decide to live a peaceful life away from the climbing crowd. 

But Stripe soon becomes restless again and decides to yet again climb the mountain of caterpillars. 

Meanwhile, left behind, Yellow experiences something glorious and wonderful. He becomes a hope for the flowers. 

Boom! No wonder, Aie, who has left her cocoon to be at her rightful place (serving the Lord), loves butterflies. 

". . . Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good."  Romans 8:26-28 (The Message)