I have been watching the butterflies in my yard this morning. It’s a bright sunshiny day, hot and blue skyed. I would call it a great day to be a butterfly. When I was walking Penelope I saw a new butterfly ballerina dancing on a hot pink stage. Penelope was so busy smelling the squirrel trails, I was able to capture a photograph of the fiery skipper. The butterfly, about an inch long, sat patiently, flying only once to a new bloom. I knew the little butterfly was a skipper by his flight pattern. And such big eyes…I know he was watching me. You might think he was a moth at first glance. He’s fuzzy, the color of a lightly cooked biscuit bottom with a few watercolor brush drops of brown syrup on his wings. Now I’m watching from the swing and I see a long tail skipper and a silver spotted skipper. Going to run out and buy a ticket to their recital and take a few photographs for my blog.

The long tail skipper looks like he’s dusted with chalk dust from Father Sky’s blue colored sky pastels. The long tail skipper visits often when the zinnias are blooming. He’s such a handsome ballerina with his iridescent blues and greens. The silver spotted skipper is the most recognizable skipper in North America. His quick darting erratic flight pattern makes him easy to spot. He’s dressed in brown leotard wings with orange and white markings. I think he is a she! Males have a black line through the center of their fore wings.

Butterflies seem to be such happy creatures, dancing through our yards and gardens in beautiful flight patterns, warming their wings in the earth’s sunshine. They remind us to not take life so seriously, to be free and enjoy our moments in the sun. All about change, the butterfly’s life begins as a caterpillar. The caterpillar encases itself in a chrysalis, transforms into a butterfly, then breaks out transformed to fly away.

The butterfly’s metamorphosis represents our spiritual life. When we accept Jesus as our savior we embrace a new life as a Christian. Romans 12:2 states, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Butterflies can remind us to be patient and wait for the good things in life that take time to transpire. Butterflies teach us to embrace change, to be willing to be transformed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks of the spiritual renewal and a fresh start for Christians. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

The average butterfly only lives three or four weeks. Butterflies remind us to appreciate each moment of joy and happiness that come our way. We should be dancing in God’s sunlight, living in the moment, not worrying about tomorrow, living life to the fullest. Butterflies remind us to embrace change and the pain that comes with transformation as we travel through God’s world. I think the butterfly teaches us to enjoy the journey, not focusing on the destination, learning who we truly are as we travel life.

As I walk on to the porch to watch the day’s end, the earth’s gentle caress of dusk is embracing the setting sun in her glistening golden gown that shimmers across the horizon. “Softly the evening came with the sunset,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I love this time of day — the magical misty shadows of the gloaming, the gentle quiet that comes over the world, the muted chattering of the songbirds, the gentle breezes rustling the old oak’s leaves, the cool air of the approaching darkness. I’m perched in the porch swing watching the day end and the night wake. The night waking with its luminous moon and twinkling stars is a thing of beauty, too.

“Let us find inner freedom in each lucky moment that we encounter, like a sun-basking butterfly that finds peace on a cherry blossom petal.” ― Erik Pevernagie