Session 12

Why it matters that you know who you are

From Chasing Purpose: A 27-Day Devotional

As children, many of us learned about the fascinating process that takes place when a caterpillar morphs into a butterfly. At the right time, a caterpillar will stop what it’s doing, hang upside down from a twig or a leaf, and spin itself into a silky cocoon. Within this protective case, a caterpillar is radically transformed and eventually breaks out of the cocoon as a butterfly. 

A similar transformation happens in the lives of Christians. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

Just like a butterfly was once a caterpillar, we are not who we used to be. When we give our lives to Jesus, we become a new creation. 

Author James Bryan Smith describes our transformation using this same analogy: " [The butterfly] was once weighed down by gravity; now it can fly. Christians were once under the reign of sin, but now we can live in freedom ... When I hear a Christian say, ‘I’m just a sinner saved by grace,’ I want to say, ‘That makes as much sense as a butterfly saying, ’I’m just a worm with wings.’"  

We are no longer sinners;  we are saints! We can’t become more like Jesus by trying harder. We become more like Jesus by learning who we are and living our new reality. 

Our God specializes in taking the dirty, messy, and ugly in our lives and turning them into something beautiful and useful. Isaiah reminds us that Jesus came to do this very thing — “to bestow on [us] a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”

Caterpillar to butterfly. Ashes to beauty. Death to life. As we follow Jesus, we become more like Him, and that’s a beautiful thing.

Reflect:

• When you look in the mirror, do you see ashes, mourning, and despair, or do you see beauty, gladness, and praise? 
  
• Is there an idea, attitude, or action in your life that needs to be more like Christ?
• Take a minute to thank God for being a perfect Father, and ask Him to transform your life more into His image.