The Faith of the Butterfly

"Look Katie, a yellow butterfly! It must be almost time for the spider lilies!" And so it was. When I first moved to our Outer Banks home there were no spider lilies in our yard. Then one day in September they showed up! They are an amazing, hearty and beautiful flower that multiply all over the yard. When you pick them and bring them inside they stay beautiful and fresh for many days. So every Sept, sometime in the first to second week they appear. Faithfully. An amazing thing about these delicate looking flowers is the rate which they grow. When that first butterfly appeared I went out to check. No shoots yet. But just two days later I saw another yellow butterfly and checked again. This time, just two days later, on Sept.1st, I picked a 24" stem and placed this first fruit of the spider lily harvest in a vase on my kitchen table. But this lily wasn't alone. Through out my yard these flowers are beginning their annual September dance.Some popping up in flower beds and other...well anywhere they want.
But as remarkable as these plants are there is something that to me is even more remarkable. How do the butterflies know they are coming? They show up before the buds push through the soil.(Spider lilies come up head first as there are no leaves on this plant, they are all stem and blossoms.)This to me is amazing.
The Bible tells us that we know how to read the signs of the weather. We can tell by looking at the sky that the next day will be fair or stormy. We can predict all kinds of things by just paying attention to the signs around us. When I saw that first yellow butterfly I knew the spider lilies would follow shortly. We have learned to rely so much on technology that sometimes we will miss the signs. When that great sunomi hit a few years back the animals and the native tribes knew to head to high ground before the wave hit.Many perished because they had desensitized themselves to the signs that nature was offering.
The Bible also tells us to watch.No one knows the day or the hour of Christ's return. However it also says that there will be many signs so that we will be ready.We have desensitized our minds and our spirit to the point where we don't pay attention and we loose touch with the very things that will reveal the coming of our Lord.We have hardened our hearts and look to all kinds of things to save us.We don't fell His breath as He leans in close to speak to us.
I want to be that butterfly, I want to be waiting when He comes. I want to be faithful before His arrival so that I don't miss out. I don't want to show up when it's all over. I want to be ready. As the spider lily shots up quickly so will the Son of Man come. I want to be a butterfly. Lord, help me to read the signs!