Butterfly Soul

By

Meriam Matthews

Tuesday, April 03, 2001

There is a side of us that only God sees – the soul. It’s the most precious side, but it is hidden from all eyes except God's. He created us with two sides; the side we see when we look at each other, and the underside, our soul, which is more important, however sinful, than any of us can imagine. It is more radiantly perfect, through grace alone, than the upper side, the visible side, the side we show to the world. 

God’s heart knows that only when He brings each of us to Him, the underside will be visible not just to Him, but to all the others with whom we will be reunited after long absences. At that time, we will be perfected in Him, beautiful, as we were made to be at Creation. We will no longer have the sinful corrupted soul we now have and will have, so long as we inhabit this earthly plane.  

Today, my loving husband found a beautiful butterfly. Lord only knows how long it had been dead, but it died with its wings fully expanded, almost in a final exhibition of God’s glorious artistry. God’s hand spread the wings out for me to see in its death, and to ponder. For only in death, with wings expanded, could the full majesty of God’s creation be revealed.

For behold, although the upper, visible side of the wings was lovely in its oranges and browns and black patterns, the underside was where the perfection lay. 

I discovered the butterfly in my little private room where I pray and do my computing and have all my precious mementos around me. It is where I meditate on God’s love and on His blessings. There are shelves above my computer monitor and to my surprise I discovered the butterfly in plain view on the first shelf, wondering how it got there. After showing it to my husband, he confessed to having placed it there for me to find.  He smiled shyly as the tears fell from my eyes and we were young again in our love, on the day of our 30th anniversary. Was there ever a more precious love offering from a husband? 

I gently turned the butterfly to see its beauty. It was only accidentally that I turned it upside down, nearly dropping it and almost crushing its dried wings. I steadied my hands and with heart fiercely pounding in my chest, I froze. There was silver beneath the wings! My breath caught in my throat. Oddly-shaped patches of shimmering, glittering silver dotted the underside of the wings, the side that will not be seen until its death..

 

Stunningly beautiful patterns of black, and shimmering, luminescent silver pocked the fragile lace of its wings. It was heart-stopping in its beauty. The true glory of the butterfly’s beauty was hidden on the underside – not the side we see. Just as we creatures of God have our shimmering and glorious underside that only God sees as He saves, this exquisite creature of God had its magnificent underside, too -- the side no one sees.  

God, in His love for one of His faithful children, chose to show me on this day, the underside of my own soul, the sin and corruption gone the day he takes me home, the side that has honest beauty. It may not be the side anyone else sees for now, but since I am created in His image, it is silvery-beautiful to Him on the day I go to the place He has prepared for me.

God sees the hidden underwings  of the soul -  and that is the only part that matters.