Easter

I picked up these 2 abandoned “temporary residences” on the edge of the shrubbery beside the footpath on my way to the Mall in Dubbo. They are a type of temporary accommodation where a particular species of caterpillar resides before it turns into a moth, at which time it abandons this old accommodation and goes out fitted with wings to explore a world full of wonders that it hardly imagined existed when it was confined to moving about on legs. The bible assures us that we will do something similar one day too if we “Believe in the Lord Jesus”. The actual words are: “Eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him”. So what is out there for us must be incredible if we have never seen anything like it, never heard anything like it or never imagined anything so spectacular. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

These “homes” that are left behind by these caterpillars that have “graduated” are remarkably made, being carefully woven with many meters of silken thread and carefully camouflaged with lots of twigs that are cunningly fastened to the outside to act as reinforcements and also protection. However although these caterpillars went to a lot of trouble to construct these homes and were probably very proud of the end result (not that I think caterpillars are really capable of being proud), I’m sure they didn’t think one more thought about what they had left behind when they flew out over the gardens and in amongst the beautiful trees. You see God “programmed” them to do all that and they therefore got their priorities right. If we came upon a collection of caterpillars that were so busy decorating their temporary homes that they forgot to turn into moths or butterflies then we would shake our heads in disbelief that anything could be so stupid, and yet we run the risk of doing just that ourselves by ignoring the fact that Jesus said “In my father’s house are many mansions....I go to prepare a place for you....and I will come again to receive you unto myself”. So we need to be sure that we have our priorities right too and have prepared our Souls so that we too will be ready when our time comes to depart these bodies that are our “temporary accommodation.”

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mean that we should neglect things here: certainly not! But we must not forget that Eternal things are much more important than temporary things. You know this change from a caterpillar into a moth inside a closed “room” is very similar to Clark Kent going into a closet and emerging as Superman and then flying away to rescue someone on the top of a high building. It is really impossible because that caterpillar would have to be made of all the ingredients that make a moth; it can’t find something missing and nip down to Bunning’s to get it, and it wouldn’t know how to make a moth anyway. No the only answer is that the remarkable mind of God prearranged it all. Similarly, when we close our eyes for the final time and are going to leave these bodies (which could be today for any one of us) we need to be sure that we have acquired all the “ingredients” necessary for us to fly on up to Heaven; if we haven’t got it all together it will be too late to say “hang on a minute whilst I read the New Testament, or go to church or whatever.”  No, when we close our eyes the decision is final; we either have accepted God’s forgiveness through believing in Jesus redemptive act at Calvary and go up to Him, or else we will be like Superman with a hunk of Kryptonite (the equivalent of sin for him), strapped to his back and go down, down, down.

At Easter God made the being “born again” experience and Eternal Life available to each of us but we need to claim that offer before it is too late.

Best wishes, Tom.