Tuesday, March 6, 2007

A mighty monarch

My friend Billy Ray Johnson sent me some information about the Monarch butterfly that just blew me away.  This tiny creature will migrate round trip from places like Minnesota to Mexico and back, travelling up to 3,000 miles.  They normally live solitary lives, but when they travel they move in flocks.  Amazingly they actually gain weight as they travel, by feeding on nectar.  Not all Monarchs migrate.  They have a short life, not living a full year.  Only the butterflies that are born in late summer will travel.  Once they've made one round trip, returning to their summer homes in the spring, three generations of butterfly will be spawned before the next migration.  It is the great grandchildren of the butterflies who made the previous migration who make the next round trip.  Somehow, they know exactly what to do and where to fly.  In fact, they are known to return to the exact tree their grandparents did the previous year!  Wow, how does that happen?  Of course this is a great natural wonder of the Lord.  But it reminds me that we owe a great deal to the patriarchs of the Old Testament, by whose examples (good and bad) we find our way and it is by the courageous lives of the early church, and believers through the generations that the truth of God's love and plan for redemption has been transmitted to us, because none of us had been there before.  And isn't it wonderful that we have found our way to the same tree...the tree of life in Jesus! 
 
Let's pass on the travel plans to heaven we have learned to the next generation of (human) butterflies!
 
John 14: 4-6  And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
 
blessings,
 
Rob Smith

No comments:

Post a Comment