I watched a small caterpillar climb the mountainside
of a glass jar, simply going where its level of awareness was taking it,
taking the chance to fling itself off the precipice of the lid, where it
hung until it began, by its own initiative, to destroy its lesser self--casting
forth from itself by much urgent struggling, the caterpillar skin, leaving
it encased in a pale green tomb.
It must have been terribly dark, painfully
cramped inside, from the caterpillar's perspective; but an outside observer
could see, whenever the light of day struck it, the flecks of gold scattered
upon its outer surface, making it appear to be a tiny gem hanging out in
space. Silently, suffering alone, it hung there. One day, the observer
could see a strange phenomenon taking place: the chrysalis was becoming
transparent, and in place of a little caterpillar, the markings of another
image could be seen--a foreshadowing of things to come.
One day, in a flash, so quick that if you
had turned away but for a moment you would have missed it, a discarded
shell hung in space and a lovely Monarch butterfly came forth. What had
been, just a split second before, a worm in a tomb to the unbelieving eye,
was no longer an earth-bound creature - no longer a lowly, fragmented self-consciousness,
but a free, soaring spirit!
BE ENCOURAGED,
FELLOW TRAVELLER,
BY THE TRIALS OF YOUR FAITH YOU ARE CURRENTLY
UNDERGOING! SUCH ARE THE HOLY WORKINGS OF A HOLY GOD AS HE BRINGS US UNTO
HIMSELF
---BEHIND THE VEIL. LOOK UP AND REJOICE
---YOUR FULL REDEMPTION - IN THE IMAGE OF
THE SON OF GOD - DRAWETH NIGH