Early in my ministry, I served as pastor of three small country churches. Members of those congregations deserve “praise and thanksgiving.” Their pastor was also a college student. Their grace abounded as I wrestled a lot with time problems.

I sometimes think that arrangement of pastoral leadership should not be allowed. But when I reflect, I would not trade my experience for anything.

Though impossible to do much pastoral visitation in homes, I gave that as much priority as possible. Even now, over 70 years ago, I remember a particular pastoral visit from that season.

Recognizing Spiritual Confinement

I was visiting in a home which was furnished with fascinating antiques. A small, beautiful chest-like container on the table beside my chair drew my eye. I was brazen enough to pick it up and examine it more closely. My hostess told me it was a betel nut box. When I opened it, an empty cocoon and a dead butterfly were on the inside.

Seeing this strange sight with me, the lady was red-faced with embarrassment. When she recovered her composure, she remembered that her grandson had put a cocoon inside the box sometime before, and she had completely forgotten it.

I was sorry for the lady in her embarrassment, but I’m glad it happened, for here was a parable of life. A cocoon had been placed in this beautiful box, an ugly, seemingly lifeless cocoon. By the miraculous process of nature, a lovely butterfly had emerged from that cocoon. Caught in the dark prison of the betel nut box, it could not spread its wings, could not find life-giving air and sunshine, and so it had died.

God’s Call to Spiritual Growth

In my fantasy I pictured how it might have been. I heard a dialogue between God and a caterpillar as the caterpillar moved through its different stages: from the egg to the larva, to the pupa, to the caterpillar, to the chrysalis, to the beautiful butterfly with its graceful wings spread in glory. At every step along the way, God cried out, “Mr. Caterpillar, come up a little higher!”

In my fantasy I knew this is the way God deals with all His creation – especially with His chief creation, man. At every juncture along the way, at every decisive moment, at every turn in the road, at the foot of every hill, His word always is, “Man, come up a little higher! You’re not made for cocoon living. The betel nut boxes of life are not your natural habitat. You fall short if you content yourself to stay at any caterpillar stage. You are not made for dreary, monotonous, humdrum living. Come up higher. You’re made for freedom and flight like the butterfly.

In my heart of hearts I know that my fantasy is close, very close, to reality. Rainer M. Rilke cryptically stated the truth: “That which would remain what it is, renounces existence.” To live is to grow.