…it became a butterfly.

“HE THAT HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR.” – MATTHEW 11:15

***This process started March 17, 2019.  This blog post has been created and edited many times in between then and the publish date.  There are now two posts in competition with each other to see which one ends up being the final draft.***

“JESUS ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHAT I DO THOU KNOWEST NOT NOW; BUT THOU SHALT KNOW HEREAFTER.” – JOHN 13:7

I’ve always killed plants.  I never thought I would be a plant person and much less one who gets excited over caterpillars and texts her friends updates of their lives,  but here I am.

In March of this year I thought, “I would like a butterfly garden”.

That thought innocently ran through my mind like when I prayed for patience and didn’t understand what I was doing.  There’s a lot more involved to a butterfly garden than just beautiful creatures flying around and making you happy.  There are specific plants for different species.  There’s planting and waiting.  There’s patience and hoping.  (Wishing and hoping… and thinking and praying…?)

I didn’t know much about caterpillars or butterflies before starting any of this, but learned quickly that I really don’t know much at all.

“HE HAS MADE EVERYTHING BEAUTIFUL IN ITS TIME…” – ECCLESIASTES 3:11

Throwback to last year when I didn’t know anything about growing cucumbers before my boss gave me a few plants she started from seeds and my life’s mission was to keep them alive.  You learn a lot when you are thrown into something and forced to figure it out.  There were several blogs that came from that experience as God has really used gardening to refine me.  It is a completely new thing for me because my thumb was always black.  It begins with loving them.  You learn patience, endurance, nurturing, and to give up your control.

You learn to enjoy the growth process and understand things need time and space.  You learn you cannot force anything to happen or grow.  Different circumstances can inhibit growth like different plants needing more acidic soil care vs the one right next to it so you learn what they need and tend to it.  (I’m looking at you, my problem child gardenia.)  Some need more sun.  Others need less water.

You also learn that you become the type of person who stresses because the gardenia hasn’t bloomed yet and encourages them to do so… “Please bloom!!!…Here are some coffee grounds… I like coffee, too.  Let’s be friends…”.  There’s so much good to learn in a garden… even if you just start in pots.

For this year’s garden the goal was the same: Keep the plants alive.

”I will only get a couple plants”, she naively told herself…

According to the date of my first picture, this adventure began March 17.  After extensive  research After clicking the first blog post on google listing plants that attracted butterflies and hummingbirds, I matched some of the names while walking through Lowe’s: impatiens, marigolds, milkweed, and a gardenia (because I forgot the word geranium.  It starts with a G, but is not the same).  I almost turned around to return it, but figured the more the merrier.  (Have you taken note that the gardenia has gotten a lot of attention this post?  I bought it accidentally, learned how needy it is, but appreciate it the most because of that, I think.  It was like, “You didn’t want me?  I’m not going to bloom.  Pay attention to me.”)

Obviously, I expected to see a butterfly in my car as soon as I walked out of the store with the flowers.  That would’ve been cool, but did not happen.  I went home and planted them in the pots.

I waited.

And waited.

All I wanted in life was to see a butterfly in my yard.  I prayed to see a butterfly.  People may think that is extreme, but God has full interest in what appears to be the tiniest of our hearts desires.

“BUT GOD HATH CHOSEN THE FOOLISH THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE WISE; AND GOD HATH CHOSEN THE WEAK THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE THINGS WHICH ARE MIGHTY…” – 1 CORINTHIANS 1:27

ALL I WANTED WAS TO SEE A BUTTERFLY.

Clearly, I dream big, but also had no idea how involved this was going to be.  I seemed to have lived in various garden stores for a while and things were adding up … but I needed them!  I was getting myself so stressed out over money I didn’t necessarily need to spend, but I had a goal.  I needed to get flowers butterflies like so they would live in my yard!  Thankfully my coworker talked me down from the ledge I created for myself…?  “I’m going to end up on welfare over butterflies!”

No drama to be found here.

I also didn’t know anything about what was about to take place.  Thankfully, my aunt joyfully announced caterpillars would eat my milkweed before I destroyed them out of ignorance.

“Something is going to destroy my plant?!?”

After my mind rearranged itself and I calmed down thought, “God I would really like to see the process”.  I only had one plant and what are the chances it would happen?  They’re not promised to come around and it’s not like I live in a butterfly oasis.

Friday, March 29: I was sitting in the backyard ‘and suddenly’ there it was… A monarch butterfly flitting around landing on my milkweed.

About a week later I noticed tiny pin sized holes in the leaves.  I didn’t think much of it until I saw itty bitty caterpillars smaller than the size of your pinky fingernail.  I was over excited, but was still unsure if they were the right kind of caterpillars verses something just destroying my milkweed plant.  (Last year, I had the wrong kind of caterpillars eat through my marigolds.)  After extended google research (and time) it was confirmed it was indeed Monarch caterpillars.

God doesn’t miss a thing.

As I was praying one night I realized that not only is God letting me find the caterpillars, but brought to remembrance the butterfly that I saw that Friday after work.

“AND I SAY UNTO YOU, ASK, AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN YOU; SEEK, AND YE SHALL FIND; KNOCK, AND IT SHALL BE OPENED UNTO YOU. FOR EVERY ONE THAT ASKETH RECEIVETH; AND HE THAT SEEKETH FINDETH; AND TO HIM THAT KNOCKETH IT SHALL BE OPENED. IF A SON SHALL ASK BREAD OF ANY OF YOU THAT IS A FATHER, WILL HE GIVE HIM A STONE? OR IF HE ASK A FISH, WILL HE FOR A FISH GIVE HIM A SERPENT? OR IF HE SHALL ASK AN EGG, WILL HE OFFER HIM A SCORPION? IF YE THEN, BEING EVIL, KNOW HOW TO GIVE GOOD GIFTS UNTO YOUR CHILDREN: HOW MUCH MORE SHALL YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER GIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT TO THEM THAT ASK HIM?” – LUKE 11:9-13

As a child of God how special is that.  He knows the number of hairs on our head.  When we pray for “little things” He doesn’t just give the bare minimum, but goes above and beyond.  All I wanted was to see a butterfly around my flowers.  Not only did God let me see a butterfly, but He let me witness the beginning of how He planned to answer my prayer about seeing the metamorphosis.  I didn’t just see A butterfly, but saw THE butterfly that started the whole thing as the egg layer.

With all the excitement comes the reality that nature is cut throat: I learned the hard way that wasps eat caterpillars.  I tried to be nice and leave the wasps alone.  My dad was outside with me and mentioned them also and I said, “They’re not bothering me.  But, I wonder what they eat?”

Not even 30 seconds later God answered that by showing me in live action what they eat: MY BABY caterpillar.  I found out quick if I am ever a mom I will be a psychotic one.  I immediately sprayed all the nests and any wasp I saw mid air.  They all had to be destroyed.  They ate my babies.  That was traumatic, but then I learned because I never thought of caterpillars being prey and I had never thought of predators.  I guess I saw everything through rose colored glasses.

“This is not Eden, Aimee.”

I felt so bad because I didn’t know they had to be protected.  Isn’t that how the enemy works?  When you have a dream, no matter what it is, the enemy comes and tries to take it from you and steal your joy.  Where there is good the enemy tries to bring evil.  You have to protect your blessings.

I learned a lot during this process, but one of my favorite lessons was realizing these caterpillars never worried about when they would become butterflies.  They didn’t compete with the others who may have grown a little faster.  They simply did what God created them to do: eat.  A lot.  I had no idea how much tiny caterpillars could eat, but they’re basically football players and the plant looks like a time of famine when they’re done.

“BUT HE ANSWERED AND SAID, IT IS WRITTEN, MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDETH OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.”
– MATTHEW 4:4

 

 

They eventually went back outside in a safe home.

The journey to getting outside was not perfect.  Three caterpillars escaped the hamper, but I only saw two crawling by the table when I got home from buying them more dinner.  (Let’s not lose our minds.  I’ve never touched one….I transfer them with a plastic spoon.)

My aunt told me she found a dead caterpillar and threw it away.  I’m a terrible mother.

I watched their behavior closely.  Again, I never thought I would be this person who studies insect mannerisms and talks about caterpillars to everyone who is alive… but here I am.

Nerd alert: When they are grown and about to head up to transform they start swirling their heads in a giant circle.  I’m assuming they are beginning the spinning process?  I don’t know exactly.

I’m sure there are experts out there who can explain things a lot better than me.  If a scientist or person who does this regularly read this they may laugh so I can only go by what I have been observing this short while.  When I say I have been stalking them ….its taken over my life.  It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever gotten to see and I spend A LOT of time outside.

I texted my friend and told her the God lesson of the day:
To become a new creature the caterpillar first sheds its old skin.  We’ve been taught, and I always assumed, the caterpillar spins itself into a cocoon and wraps itself up, but it actually sheds its outer skin.  The chrysalis is actually their body that is covered by what you see as the caterpillar.  It has to let go of its former self.  It hangs upside down and is spinning out of its outer layer and the transformation begins in the new skin.  That’s why you can’t touch them.  They are exposed and “vulnerable”.  They’re naked and transforming.  They appear to be still, but a lot of work is about to take place.

This brought to mind the transformation of the Christian.
“AND BE NOT CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD: BUT BE YE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF YOUR MIND, THAT YE MAY PROVE WHAT IS THAT GOOD, AND ACCEPTABLE, AND PERFECT, WILL OF GOD.” – ROMANS 12:2

You can’t go back to your old ways.  You must let go and be rid of your old skin.  You’re now a new creature.  What was dead is being made into a new life.

A caterpillar can never look back once it sheds its skin.  It can only move forward.  A butterfly can never look back and be that caterpillar again.

I was curious what happens inside the cocoon and read one night that they essentially digest themselves.  They are created with the DNA of everything that they are later to become whether moth or butterfly, but it’s all on the inside.  Inside of the chrysalis the enzymes break the caterpillar’s body down into a liquid that will be rebuilt into that moth or butterfly.

Isn’t that amazing?

I don’t care how much science there is behind it.  There is no way it could be an accident for something to break itself down and randomly builds itself perfectly back together as another creature that is so breathtaking and delicate.  Its eyes are in the correct spot.  Its wings are both formed as mirrors as itself and perfectly colored.  It takes off in flight without ever being taught how.  The caterpillar has a mouth for chewing leaves.  That breaks down and is rebuilt into a “straw”  the butterfly uses to suck the nectar from the flowers.

I couldn’t wait to get home from work to see them.
(There were various family group texts on updates on my babies…)

 

 

There are about 25 insects in the habitats total and 5 were ready to spread their wings today.

What is amazing is they go from these little caterpillars to these creatures with not just orange wings, but they have a shine or sheen to them and they are spectacular when they open and close them.  Look at the edges of them… black with white spots.  The detail of the lines in between the orange… like a mosaic.

Their little bodies are black with what looks like black hair…so they have an amazing pony tail swaying side to side when they fly. 😛

While riding my bike ‘I know’ I saw one of them at the neighbor’s house and I was like “Hey!  What’s up!!”

But, they are always welcome back……

My God is so good.