Butterflies

This year has been a good one for butterflies. The conditions have obviously been right for them, and I have enjoyed seeing many in the local countryside and in our garden. However, occasionally they’ve come into the house through open doors or windows and I’ve tried to help them escape. On one particular occasion I had opened every window in the room and was trying to encourage a butterfly to fly towards the open window that would bring freedom. However, it continually seemed to fly in the opposite direction, or to choose the windows that were closed, fluttering against the glass in a futile attempt to reach the sunlight. As I watched with mounting frustration, I felt God saying that this was like many of His people.

In Christ we have a way to freedom and an open door to all of God’s blessings and provision in our lives. Jesus tells us that He Himself is The Door (John 10:9), and He’s also the Light of the World (John 8:12). However, like the butterfly, some people seem intent on going in the opposite direction, turning their back on the way to true release, or they’re drawn to things that seem attractive but which don’t bring freedom and healing. Jesus is the only way to salvation, which includes healing and wholeness. He tells us to: ‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it’ (Matthew 7:13-14).

We’re told in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that: ‘Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light’. Some of the things he uses to try to tempt and lure people down the wrong path can appear to be full of light and truth – for instance some alternative medical practices or methods of healing. If we don’t know the ‘real thing’ well enough we can easily be drawn to these, but, like the butterfly, we may then find the way to true freedom blocked, and we may become damaged in the process.

Discernment is something that every believer should be asking God for so that we aren’t led astray down false avenues. It’s one of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10). We need to get to know our God better, and be rooted and grounded in His Word, so that any false ways that don’t lead to the life that Jesus promises us will immediately jar in our spirits. Let’s look to Jesus alone as the Door and the Light of the World, and keep asking Him to lead us and to keep us on the right path!

Prayer: Lord, thank You that Jesus is the way that leads to salvation and freedom. Please give me increasing discernment that will alert me to every wrong path and will keep me on the way that leads to life. Amen.