Butterfly Praise

Butterflies are fantastic; beautiful, graceful, and captivating.

We are surrounded by butterflies during the spring, summer, and fall. They change from a caterpillar to a chrysalis and emerge with wings, flying high out of our reach. They visit our gardens, landing on plants just a few feet away, and drink nectar from flowers. We can't help but stop to give God the glory for these beautiful creatures.

Just like when I'm with butterflies, I find that after I've been talking to certain people in my life, I find myself often thanking and/or praising God because of them.
Watching butterflies causes me to praise God. Thinking of others often causes me to praise God. I have to ask myself if I live my life in a manner to cause others to praise God because of me. Does anyone ever leave my presence giving praise to God because of what I am?

• Have I made someone’s life easier today?

• Have I helped someone who is going through a difficult time?

• Have I been a blessing to someone?

I should start my day by asking God to make me a blessing to someone else and for my life to bring praise to him.


Galatians 1:24

"And they praised God because of me."

Hidden Beauty

Hidden beauty is all around us.  Things that we consider drab are quite often actually stunningly beautiful.  We just don't look at the whole picture.

The Great Leopard Moth is one example.  When this moth is sitting still, it's a simple white and black moth. 

But when the wings are moved to the side, bright sunlight reveals an iridescent metallic blue on the topside of its abdomen. This blue is rarely visible. The brilliant blue stays hidden under the wings.

Another moth with hidden surprises is the Io moth. When resting during the day or at night, it's a rust or yellow colored moth, depending upon whether it is a male or female.

When the upper wings are moved to the side, its large eye spots are visible.

The rust colored moth is a female. The yellow moth is a male.

The male Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly is a drab dark black butterfly until it is seen in bright light.  The light refraction reveals a bright metallic blue color that is absolutely beautiful.

This hidden beauty makes me wonder about other people.  Am I missing some of the ‘beauties’ of life by looking only from one angle or only in certain lights?  Some people show their real beauty when times get rough.  Some show their beauty when someone is in need.  At unexpected times, people show their beauty in different and unexpected ways.

There are those who value outward beauty and later find that inward beauty is more important. Most of us fall into this group of people. We learn about real beauty when we are purchasing a sofa (beautiful but uncomfortable), a house (gorgeous but drafty and with bugs), or meeting a person (beautiful/handsome but has a nasty nature).

So what is beauty?

The greatest beauty in this world is Jesus. But in person, he was not beautiful. Man's renderings in ink, charcoal, paint, and every other media illustrates Jesus as a fairly to very good-looking man. Yet according to Isaiah 52:2 he was not a good-looking man. "... there is no beauty that we should desire him".


The real beauty of Jesus was not that of facial features of physical form. His real beauty was his love for his Father and for us; mankind. Real beauty is God's love.

It's the manifestation of God's love in people that is valued the most in difficult times. When things are going good, we may want to be around the things that are more visibly beautiful. But when rough times hit, we want the true beauty of the actions of love in our lives.

What actions?

• bringing a meal when we're unable to cook
• paying our bills when we're unable to work
• holding our hands when they're empty because a loved one was taken from us
• praying for us when we're in need
• spending time with us when we're lonely
• picking up our prescriptions when we're unable to drive
• caring for our loved ones when we are unable to do so
• sometimes it is simply holding a door open for us with a smile and a 'good morning'
• (the list is as endless as the needs of mankind)

After appreciating the beauty of God's love, we should first focus on obtaining the true inward beauty of that love within ourselves.  Second, we should focus on appreciating the other real beauty around us, the beauty inside our fellow man.

Isaiah 52:2

... there is no beauty that we should desire him.

I Love Butterflies?

Beautiful butterflies, flying here and there, drinking nectar from this flower and that flower .....

...... or are they?  These little brown critters can't be butterflies.  After all ....

..... we all know that butterflies are bright and colorful!  Of course .....

.... these little brown critters can't be butterflies.

We all have been taught dissimilar things and have different preconceived notions; from food to eat to how to behave in public to what a butterfly is.  Very few people would realize that all of the above photos are of butterflies.  As humans, we tend to place value on bright colorful butterflies and dismiss dark, dull, and small butterflies.

Look at the photos below. We normally give more attention and value to bright colorful daytime butterflies and ignore the huge beautiful night-time moths like these. Yes, all photos below are of moths.

We tend to ‘love’ only certain butterflies and moths and not other butterflies and moths. We ‘love’ many creatures in varying degrees depending entirely on the way they look or act.

If a little tattered brown Duskywing butterfly could become a large majestic Monarch butterfly, most humans would 'love' it more.

What if God loved like we do, his love depending upon how we look or act? I'm so glad that God already loves us totally, fully, and completely.
We can't do anything to cause God to love us more.

He loved us so much that he planned for a way for us (mankind) to be reunited with him.  He loved us that much BEFORE we accepted him.  Love can't be greater than that.  He can't love us more if we're bright and beautiful, with fewer tatters.  He wouldn’t love us more if we spend more time in prayer and studying his word, drawing closer to him and loving him more. He won't love us more if we help others more.  He won't love us more if we love others more. He may approve of our actions more but not love us more. 

We can love him more but he can't love us more.  He always has loved us to the very maximum that anyone or anything can be loved.

We can put ourselves in a position where WE can love God more.  WE can learn from God more.  We can be closer to God.  But God has already loved us and does love us to the extreme.

Romans 5:8

"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners."

 . 

Monarch Cremaster SEM

Every year, millions of Monarch caterpillars change into chrysalises.  During this change, the caterpillar literally sheds its skin and becomes a chrysalis.  As it slips out of its skin, it must let go with its legs and hold on with its cremaster, the black stem at the top of the chrysalis.

The two lowest black dots of a Monarch chrysalis are called 'holdfast tubercles'.   A pupating caterpillar/chrysalis is literally suspended by two tiny holdfast tubercles for a moment as it withdraws its cremaster from underneath its old skin and grasps its silk button with the tip of its cremaster.  Long ago scientists discovered that the tip of the cremaster is covered with tiny hooks.  These hooks become tangles with the loops of the silk pad it had made before pupating.

This step is critical.  If the cremaster doesn't grasp the silk button and falls onto most surfaces, it ruptures.  The chrysalis breaks open upon impact with the surface below it.  We still often hold our breath as we watch this critical moment during pupation ... STRESS ... will it make the reach?  Will someone bump the table?  Will wind blow at the wrong time?  Will an animal pass by and knock it off the stem before it finishes? 

We were given Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) images of the tip of a Monarch cremaster, along with permission to use the images.  This is an image of a Monarch cremaster with its hooks locked into the loops of its silk button.  No wonder it holds so well! 

The cremaster's hooks and silk pad's loops are much like Velcro®.  Unlike  Velcro®, the hooks and loops make a connection so tight that if one simply pulls at the chrysalis, the chrysalis will break before the hooks pull loose from the silk pad. This protects the cremaster from being blown loose in storms. 

It is good to be reminded again that God was there first.  He created everything.   How wonderful it is to rest in the knowledge that such a God is still here, handling things from year to year, month to month, week to week, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute, and even second to second.  What a stress relief!

Genesis 1: 20-25

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Total commitment to the eyeballs and beyond!

White Peacock

This White Peacock is really getting into its food.  The nectar that it needs is at the base of this flower.  The flower has a long tube throat and the butterfly's proboscis must reach the base of the flower to drink nectar.

This photograph shows the proboscis as it's curling up after it has finished drinking from that flower.  It's a long tube that curls into a very tight curl when it's not drinking.

A Cloudless Sulphur is really entering into its meal in this photo and the one below.

As was this Palamedes above and this Spicebush below.

 

That's a total commitment!  Getting this deep into a flower blinds the butterfly to what is going on around it.  That's total commitment.  It's not all the time that the butterfly is this deep into its food.  It's just a bit here and there. Sometimes it doesn't need to dig so deep.  Sometimes it does.    In the photo below, we see a Cloudless Sulphur that didn't need to dig deep into the flower at all to obtain nectar.

So what about me?  How committed am I?  Am I digging deep enough?  The answer is a resounding NO, not always.  My spiritual food is available through many 'flowers', from friends, messages, prayer, quiet time, and the Bible. 

Without taking time to totally commit myself, I will not gain the amount of 'nectar' I need to sustain my spiritual life as I should.  There is a point where one can spend too much time in spiritual issues and fail at living the life God meant one to live, interacting with others, earning a living, and enjoying life.  I'm not at that point, I'm falling short of spending enough time seeking 'nectar'.  There is a point where one knows he/she should commit more. 

Like the butterfly, I need to dig deeper into reaching the true nectar to give myself spiritual food to grow in the spirit.

Serves Him Right!

Veronica bugs kill butterflies.  This one has killed a Duskywing butterfly.  I do not like Veronica bugs.  End of story.

Then sometimes it's so good to see some of the sights I find as I wander with a camera.  Especially when I wander and find a spider eating a veronica bug.  Grin.  Gloat.  Chuckle.

It's so satisfying to see 'justice'.  But it shouldn't be.

Especially when it comes to my fellow man, including those who have declared me their enemy.

I know that if I am filled with the Holy Spirit and let him direct me, crowing when disaster befalls other humans wouldn't be as bad as it is when I don't allow him to take over.  I tend to learn the hard way.

Misjudging is the cause of not thinking or seeing the real situation - or someones upbringing - or battles they deal with - or many other things.  Misjudging can be, to a certain extent, understandable from a human standpoint.

Crowing or grinning when disaster or negative things happen to someone (who has declared me to be an enemy) isn't understandable except as the carnal bad nature of myself.  It's just plain ole bad - all the way around.

The tendency to do so is also as old as the hills, almost. Solomon wrote about it in Proverbs (below).

After reading what Solomon wrote, the bad side of me says that if I learn not to rejoice when my enemy falls, God will take care of my enemy better than I can which would be much more satisfying.  But that in itself is again the bad nature of hoping for something worse than what has already happened to someone.  Human nature is pretty nasty.  At least my human nature is.

Here's hopes and prayers that I'll always pray for my enemies with a pure heart, the love of God, praying that my 'enemy' will draw close to God and that I will draw closer to God too. 

Wouldn't it be great if we all changed to the point that we'd all be close to God and find out that it doesn't take work to love one another, that it could be simply natural.  That's the reality of heaven - it won't be hard, won't be work, it will be simply our nature to love one another at all times, with the pure love of God.
 
Until then, I'll pray and trust God to change me to be what I should be and that I can learn to let God's love flow through me instead of my human nasty side blocking God's love.

Proverbs 24:17-18 KJV
Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

Polyphemus Moth and Gas Pump???

Uh - why is a Polyphemus Moth hanging out at a gas pump?

Oh yes, it was quite a surprise to find this huge moth with a 6" wingspan at the gas pump in the afternoon. 

We find Polyphemus moths quite often at our moth light in the early morning, a bright light with a white sheet underneath it.  Moths are attracted to light and the white sheet reflects the light, creating a huge white glow.  We are able to photograph these beauties by picking them up off the sheet, placing them on a piece of bark, and taking a picture.  Then we can allow them to fly away again.

But in the middle of the afternoon?  Yes, it flew in to the bright light at night but it sure hung around for a long time at a busy gas station.  Did no one notice it?  I noticed it simply because I notice moths and butterflies quickly.

I placed her in a brown paper bag for a few hours, she laid some eggs, and I could release her to finish laying eggs in nature.  I could then raise some moths from the eggs she laid.

As I thought about it, I realized that once again I was on the verge of taking a gift for granted.  It isn't every day I find such a beauty in such an unexpected place. 

Uh - thinking of unexpected places to find gifts, I realize tonight that once again, I have often been given a certain gift but not one that I appreciate as much as this beautiful moth. 

I was given the 'gift' of:

• 
  
  An opportunity to exercise patience
• 
  
  An opportunity to exercise self-control
• 
  
  An opportunity to control my tongue (fingers on the keyboard)
• 
  
  The opportunity to pray for others who would not expect me to pray for them and who I wouldn't, in my human self, think to pray for ...

The question is, am I seriously praying for the good of others who despitefully use me?  It's always the time for a self-check and always time for a God check.  I pray that God will 'try my reins and my heart' and reveal to me where my attitude is not in alignment with Him.  He wants the best for me and those who see things differently than I do.  It's not about me.  It's about God.  It's about Jesus.  It's about the Holy Spirit working in me.  I pray that I will step back and allow the Holy Spirit to work in me.

{Even now as I preview this to publish, I realize that I still haven't taken time to pray not just for others but for myself.  I need prayer worse than others - the fact that I wrote this and still hadn't prayed about the situation is proof in fact!}

Psalm 26:1-3

Judge me, O LORD; for I have walked in mine integrity: I have trusted also in the LORD; therefore I shall not slide. Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.

Matthew 5:44-45

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Luke 6:27-29

"But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also