I enjoyed walking through the greenway last year, and had a lot of time to think and pray. I saw many different butterflies, and it caused me to think about the spiritual application. I later shared these thoughts in email to my family, and some others. I thought I would share them here. There are five of them, i will share every other day...
Acts 3:1-11 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God: And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
What a wonderful story. We see in it: The power of God. The faith of these Christian men, and the healing of this poor man, (and that from an incurable physical ailment), All mixed together to show us that God is able, and that God cares for his creature. Also, the benefits of this miracle, is that the people saw God’s working, and give him praise.
Reading this story is much like watching a butterfly. What a remarkable thing that is. A worm, a hairy worm at that. Builds his coffin all around him, then closes it up finally, and dies. Really, he dies to this world. But then a miraculous thing happens. He is made alive, but bound with his grave clothes, as it were. So he has to beat his way out of the cocoon, strip away the clothes of death, and emerge into the very world he died to, a new creature. I would love to get inside the head of a butterfly. Once limited to the ground, and small bushes, now he has wings, he can fly, and no longer hairy, but he has beautiful wings. Now flying all over the place, he can see from heights never before dreamed of. New horizons, with food of his choice. When I watch one of these miracles, I see a creature that is filled with the wonder of his new life, and spends each day enjoying it.
Then I ask myself the question, why are we Christians more like the hairy Worm, and less like the Butterfly? Why do we crawl on the ground, vulnerable to life’s mishaps, feeling lost, and building our own cocoon?
Many times, I think we Christians do not revel in the wonders of our God, because of “Bad Perception”. What I mean is how we perceive things, people, and events in our lives. We choose to see only the bad, the dreary, and the negative aspect of the “Things we don’t have” “Faults in other people” and “The dark circumstances’ that are our lot today” And we fail to experiance all the colors, and flavor, and harmony of life all around us.
So, when we read this story in the book of Acts, we see the faith of Peter and John, the place he was at, the healing of the man, and the reaction of the people. But, what we don’t see, is “The Me” in the story. We read this like many other things in God’s word, and think, that only happens to “Bible People”. We need to remember, we are his “Bible People”
Paul prayed for us:
Ephesians 1:18 -20 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Spend the next few days with me in Bible study, and let’s look at this story with a different perspective.
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