It was literally the biggest caterpillar I had ever seen. I stopped in my tracks last week, watching a black, fuzzy caterpillar the size of a hot dog slowly make its way across my path. Of course, when I saw it, it was supposed to be dead. Seriously. A little guy visiting that day had spotted the big, fat caterpillar and went into ninja bug mode as little boys do. He stomped and stood his ground, his cowboy boots grinding the caterpillar into the sidewalk. He declared him killed. “That bug is really, truly, really dead,” he proudly said.
Now an hour later, I watched the caterpillar, clearly not dead, inching its way from one side of the concrete breezeway to the other. I couldn’t tell if it was injured or not. I couldn’t even tell which end was the head or the tail, but it was making progress, on its way to somewhere.
The image of the big, fat caterpillar has stayed with me. It reminds me of some of my bad habits. Like my little ninja friend, I kick and stomp and declare them killed, only to find them later inching along as though nothing has changed. I watch and shake my head. There are habits, attitudes, patterns, and choices that just need to be stopped in their tracks because they don’t help me look like Jesus.
“…a time to kill, and a time to heal;” – Ecclesiastes 3:3a
One of the consistent messages in the New Testament speaks to the need to kill the old person, with its worldly desires, selfish motives, and limited vision, and allow God to shape us into people healed and made whole by grace. Killing seems like such a harsh reality, but it is necessary if Christ is going to be formed in me. I can’t be healed by His mercy until the poison that is choking my soul is put to death.
My Jesus Resolution today is embrace 2 Corinthians 5:17 –“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” God wants to create something beautiful in me. In order for that to happen, something is going to have to pass away. Today is the day to go to the altar and kill the habits and practices that are holding me back from being all God wants me to be in Christ. I really hope that big, fat caterpillar turns into the most spectacular butterfly, and I pray that I can be courageous enough to kill what needs to go so I can fly as well.
Casandra Martin 
I love this Casandra. It’s so important to kill what is not serving us. One of my prayers and meditations in the last week has been to throw out all the dark, the cobwebs and the trash in my heart and mind. I only want to be filled with God’s light. This post is so timely because in our area in Central California our Monarch butterflies are starting to hatch by the ocean for the month of February. It is such a glorious thing to go and watch/film and praise God for. I pray thanks to God for you and the daily encouragement your teachings from God’s word provides me. May we all let go of our “ugly” and transform into the beautiful creatures God has chosen us to be. 🙂