Caterpillar or Butterfly

Acts 9:17-19
“And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.”

If you have ever seen a butterfly you know it was not always a butterfly. It started as a caterpillar. As God created the caterpillar He also had a plan in mind to change it into a butterfly. If you watch that green crawly worm inching its way from leaf to leaf you know it is not a thing of beauty. It is limits in what it can see and what it can do. In time it enters a cocoon and metamorphosis happens. As I read about how Saul was changed I cannot help but think how like the caterpillar he was. As I read about the scales falling off Saul’s eyes I think of the butterfly as it emerges from its chrysalis—the same creature yet through God’s miracle of transformation different in every way.

Saul could see again but he now had different eyes. Did he see the world as he had seen it or did he see things with the eyes of Christ? Did he still have the narrow world view of the caterpillar from crawling around on the ground for so long where rocks looked like mountains and puddles looked like oceans? Or did he have the vantage of a butterfly soaring above and looking at the world from a completely different view point? Yes he was still in the world but he had a completely different perspective.

When he emerged from blindness his life was forever changed as he became a "new creation in Christ". He no longer had the same perspective or eyesight -- and we -- two thousand years later have been greatly blessed as a result.

When one accepts Christ as savior you become a new creature. You were changed by the mercy of God’s Grace and the blood that was shed on the cross. You have a new birth. Old things are passed away and everything is new. Just like the butterfly that now sees the beauty all around you too now have a new set of eyes.
Vision is totally dependent on your point of view, on your perspective. As you rise out of the baptismal waters where you buried the old man you now have Christ as your guide. In baptism you were buried in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection. You now have new point of view. Saul got his sight back then he got baptized and then was fed to regain his strength and then he began his ministry.

How do you see the world? Do you see it the same as your non-Christian friends or do you see it through Christ's eyes? Are you still stumbling around with your eyes closed or have you let Jesus change your perspective? How can you begin to change right now?