May 13, 2005

Shyrah was a Swallowtail caterpillar not quite like all the others.  She had been hatched first of all her one hundred brothers and sisters and had been the first one to try anything new ever since.  Fun-loving and social, she lived life on the wild side.  She would climb up the highest, in spite of the ever-present danger of predatory birds.  She would journey out into the back yard the farthest, no matter that it might be Friday and the lawn was always mown on Fridays.  And she would always eat the most, no matter that her appetite, voracious even for a caterpillar, was carrying her far and away beyond what others felt was safe and comfortable.

One day, however, she began to feel strange.  A joy and thrill were so powerfully bubbling up from within her that she began to sing hearty and loud notes with her tiny caterpillar voice.  Oh, and such thoughts were taking shape in her mind!  She began to dream of flying, longing to take wing and be lifted up over the earth and soar in the grand and glorious sapphire-blue sky!

And so her songs floated on to the other caterpillars.  Some who listened found in themselves a similar stirring and a tiny gleam of hope for something more was awakened within them.  Others, though, heard her songs and were angered.  They were at first annoyed with Shyrah for they thought her too preoccupied with her flighty fantasies to stay focused on what they felt was her supreme duty… that of carefully and consistently eating and digesting.  Then, in their pride, they became jealous of how others were touched by her melody of hope and her dreams of being lifted out of the mud and mire of only the “here-and-now.”

But she still sang, undaunted by their looks and their words, undeterred from the great longing in her heart.  Peger, one of Shyrah’s brothers, heard her sweet refrain and found in himself a yearning also to fly and so he began to sing, too.

But when he saw the sneers and heard the snickering of those around him, his song would fade and a worried and wearied look would turn his handsome caterpillar countenance into a study of awkward ambivalence.

As the hours passed into days, she sang and waited for the day when her dreams would be realized while he fretted and wondered what others were thinking of him.

Finally, as the early morning sun began to peep just over the pale eastern horizon, a distant droning was heard.  No one knew what the sound was, nor did they know what it meant.  Shyrah and a few others were too busy to pay any attention:  so many wonderful things were taking place inside themselves that they had begun to spin silk and were wrapping tiny threads about themselves until they were completely robed in a white garment.  And, while in this incredible chrysalis stage, the transformation continued.

Meanwhile, as the droning sound grew louder and louder, Peger hesitated.  He had seen Shyrah completely cover herself in her cocoon of webbing.  As his eyes remained frozen on her unmoving form, he wondered if she had finally lost her mind and had ultimately deluded herself and others into an early death.  And while he hesitated, wondering about all of this, he failed to notice a small Trichogramma wasp hovering closer and closer behind him.

Suddenly, his back was ablaze with piercing pain.  His body curled up and nearly fell from the leaf he had just been eating but he managed to regain his hold just in time.  “Ouch!” he exclaimed, looking around wildly.  As his eyes surveyed the leaves about him, he saw some other chrysalises but also saw some other caterpillars looking as surprised and as pained as he.

Peger sighed heavily at the loss of his sister, Shyrah, and of others.  He even shed a  tear or two.  But then he shrugged his little caterpillar shoulders and resumed eating like nothing had happened.   Well, at least for a little while.  It wasn’t long until he began to feel strange inside again, only this time it was not a good thing.  Something was wrong but he didn’t know what.  Pain began to radiate out from the sore spot on his back but soon gave way to excruciating agony within.  Quickly, his strength faded and he would have fallen from his leaf had his little caterpillar toes not been embedded in the leaf’s surface.  He could eat no more and soon became completely listless.

He watched passively when something inside finally cut through his skin and emerged onto the leaf beside Peger’s broken and ruined body.  It was the larva of a Trichogramma wasp.  Looking quite happy and healthy, it ignored Peger and began busily wrapping itself in threads stolen from Peger’s own body until it had completely cocooned itself in silk, humming to itself all the while it worked.

Shortly afterwards, Peger finally died.  He had only a vague awareness of what had actually happened to him and of the opportunity lost now to him forever.  The might-have-beens would never be for poor Peger.

A few weeks passed.  A couple of leaves away, a cocoon began to tremble and a tiny opening appeared halfway up its length.  In only about ten seconds, a wet and crumpled Swallowtail butterfly emerged and climbed to the edge of its leaf.  It was Shyrah.  The excitement and thrill of finally coming out of her cocoon were very nearly too much for her to contain.  She pumped her little wings up and down until they filled with fluid and had dried.  Then, just as she was about to take her first flight, she paused, sad for all her brothers and sisters who were missing out on this amazing moment, yet glad for all those who were there.

She spread her wings and launched herself up and away from the leaf on which she had lived for such a long time.  Exulting in her new and transformed life, she sped away into the sapphire-blue sky, the air about her filled with the song of victory that she sang.

“He that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.  For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6b-9 KJV).  But “I waited patiently for the LORD; He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.  He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.  Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.  Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done.  The things You planned for us no one can recount to You; were I to speak and tell them, they would be too many to declare” (Psalms 40:1-5 NIV).

(Thom Mollohan has ministered in southern Ohio the past nine and a half years and is the pastor of Pathway Community Church.   He and his wife are the parents of four children.  He may be reached by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).