Introduction
Obviously, my title is a play on words. Cocoonie is an attempt to be a little different in identifying the caterpillar’s cocoon. It is that mysterious place where the caterpillar goes through a metamorphosis and comes out an entirely new creature, a butterfly.
The use of the word, ”Tunes” is also an odd way of hinting towards the symphony of God’s grace that brings together the elements of life and death and resurrection. It has played out for centuries right in front of us so we could see the beauty of God’s will for humanity. It is orchestrated in the halls of nature for all to see and enjoy.
Let me take you down the metamorphosis road so you can see how it relates to you and me. Here’s what we know to be true:
- The caterpillar is a small animal with a narrow body and many legs, and which feeds on the leaves of plants and later develops into a butterfly. (Cambridge dictionary)
- The caterpillar has no wings and cannot fly.
- The caterpillar has many legs and crawls around the grown or climbs a tree to feed on its leaves or flowers.
- There are more than 20,000 different species of known caterpillar found all around the world and it is estimated that there are many more that are undiscovered as new species of butterflies regularly found in regions where there is little, if any, human presence.
Caterpillars, although verry different than Butterflys, are the “Larva” or baby of the butterfly. Its existence is temporary. Its purpose is to become a butterfly. It is alive, occupies space and feeds itself.
All 20,000 species go through a metamorphoisic experience to attain their destiny…to be a butterfly.
The Butterfly
The butterfly is a new creature. It is completely different than the caterpillar. Most butterflies eat (actually they “drink”) from nectar plants. Each species of butterflies has nectar plants that they prefer but many adult butterflies will feed from a wide variety of nectar sources. Butterflies are not as specific in their food source as are their caterpillars.
Butterfly Metaphor
The butterfly is a perfect metaphor for the, “New Birth” experience that Jesus spoke of as recorded in John’s gospel. Jesus mentioned it during a conversation with Nicodemus, a religious leader. Here’s the story from John chapter three…
“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3
There are other Bible references that speak to the idea of being, “Born Again” There are a few:
- Peter 1:23 – Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of non corruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Romans 6:4 – Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:6 – Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
- Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Ephesians 2:5-6 – Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) Can you see what the scriptures are saying? Let me summarize them in a sort of word picture.
The Old Man
The caterpillar is the, “Old Man” of Romans 6:6. He must be crucified or die. His body is full of Sin and it cannot enter Heaven i.e. The Kingdom of God.
The, “Old Man’s” death is exampled in the death of Jesus on the cross. That is why the Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:4 that we are buried with Him by baptism into death.
The Seed of Life
The corruptible seed cannot become incorruptible on its own. Peter makes this clear in I Peter1 1:23. He tells us that the corrupted seed must die and the, “New Birth” comes from an incorruptible seed. Where does this incorruptible seed come from? It comes from God when you repent, ask forgiveness for your sins and receive Jesus as your savior.
It is His life that is incorruptible. It is His seed that is implanted in you. This means we cannot do anything of ourselves to become suited for God’s kingdom. The incorruptible seed comes from God and is given to us when we believe in Jesus as our savior. His seed grows in us and forms the, “New Creature”
The Cocoon
The cocoon is the Word of God. It envelops us as we read it. It fills us with faith, hope and power. It is the Word of God that takes the corruptible seed to its death and in a spiritual metamorphosis creates the incorruptible. It is the Word of God that transforms us into God’s butterfly.
The New Creature
However, this is not a self-righteousness but rather a, “New Creature” that bears the likeness and image of God in His character. It is an entirely new nature that suddenly appears like the butterfly emerging from the cocoon.
Paul again writes to the Corinthian church in the 1st century, telling them that the, “New Creature” is In Christ and that old things pass away like the caterpillar. It gives way, being transformed by the Word of God, and all things become new. It’s a new life, a new world, a fresh start, an image and likeness of God Himself in human form. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is the destiny of every Christian.
Old & New Things
Paul further writes to the church at Ephesus telling them that we were quickened or made alive with Christ…in His death, burial and resurrection. However, it didn’t happen when we attained a state of righteousness. It all took place when we were lost and dead in our sins. (Ephesians 2:5-6) He says it is the grace of God that allowed it all to happen…not our efforts.
The Cross-&-The Cocoon
Now let’s look at what Jesus said to His disciples. It is recorded in Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23)
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
Jesus knew that He was destined for the cross. He knew that He would have to deny Himself and carry the cross to Calvary. If we are followers of Jesus, where do you think He is going to take us? Where do you think we will go?
Correct Answer: To Calvary. We must be self-denial disciples that seek the Will of God and His divine destiny for us. He wants us to enter the cocoon (Word of God) and be transformed into the butterfly. Paul again writes to the church at Rome. Here’s what he said.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:1-2
It is in the cocoon of the Word that we are transformed. It is the only way to renew our minds. However, the end result is beautiful because it is in line with God’s will and destiny for us. The flesh with all its lust, evil etc. (Corruptible Seed) dies and God’s Incorruptible Seed of Peace, Love, Joy, Longsuffering, Faith etc. emerge to reveal the image and likeness of God in the earth. (Galatians 5)
So we can remain a caterpillar, crawling around in the dirt or we can enter God’s Cocoon and become a butterfly. God takes no prisoners. This is a free will choice. That’s why Jesus said, “If any man will come after me”
Save It By Losing It
Jesus told His disciples and the people around Him that they would save their lives by losing them. This is what He said.
“And when He had called the people to Him with His disciples also, He said to them, whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)
Self-Denial
We are living in the, “Me” generation where self is King or Queen. Self- denial is unheard of. In fact, exaltation of self is very popular. Have you ever hear of, “you can be anything you want to be? You rarely hear, “I want to be what God wants me to be”
Herein is the war between the flesh and the Spirit. Self-exaltation drives us to be all that we can be. We fill ourselves with pride, and become absorbed with the things of this world, i.e. Power, Fame, Lust, and so on. We rule the day and boast about how we did it our way.
However, self-denial is just that. We deny ourselves the right to rule our own lives and fashion our own destines. We, instead, make Jesus the Lord of our life and allow His Holy Spirit to rule over our every thought and decision. Our will takes a back seat to the will of God. We seek to know His will and strive to live it out in our daily experiences.
Butterflying
The butterfly is an example of the, “New Creature” He can fly where the caterpillar could not. He flies on the wind of the Holy Spirit and finds himself in God. His image is spectacular; a likeness that is of God and his character is full of the fruit of the Spirit from which he was born. He is driven by the Word of God and dwells in an unusual peace that passes all understanding. This is, “Butterflying”
I Find Myself In God
I find myself in God.
He is my, “Everything.” I know that He is Lord,
My life, my Hope, and King.
I find myself in God, Not the ways of sin. Nor do I look to others,
To know who I really am.
I find myself in God,
To whom I bow on bended knee.
He alone is my joy and strength
And where I want to be.
Written By Rev.
John Marinelli
Flesh & Spirit
The caterpillar is a picture of what the Bible calls, “The Flesh” whereas the butterfly is a portrait of the, “ The Spirit”. Paul, the Apostle, contrasts these two in Galatians. Here’s what he said….
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:19-25
The works of the flesh emanate from a caterpillar mentality where self is Lord and life is all about me. Thus comes lust, adultery, sex before marriage, murder, and all sorts of lawlessness. The flesh cannot please God. It has no appetite for Godly things and seeks its own all the time.
The Spirit, on the other hand, manifests the very character of God i.e. Love, peace, joy and all the other fruits mentions in verses 22-23.
The important thing to note in these Bible verses is the fact that, as verse 24 says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”
Chose A Spirit
Now here’s a Biblical Truth that few Christian know. When Adam sinned against God, he lost the Spirit (Breath of God) that was breathed into him. He was created in the likeness and image of God. He was already a Butterfly, fully-grown and magnificent in every way.
Here’s what God said to Adam, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 2:17
Along comes the Serpent, (Satan) and says to the woman, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
So Eve ate of the fruit and gave it to Adam who also ate and they died in accordance to what God told them. However, their death was not physical but spiritual. The evil of Satan, his very character, entered the human race, replacing the character of God. Thus the butterfly became a caterpillar, no longer able to fly and slowly dieing physically.
They did not become gods unto themselves as the serpent said. They rather became sinners drowning in an evil and vile nature that is sure to produce murder, adultery and all the other works of the flesh.
Now we see the works of the flesh manifested in humanity as we kill each other, lie, steal, destroy and commit all sorts of evil. Jesus spoke well of this nature when he spoke to the Pharisees. He said…
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44
Adam was the only pure butterfly. He started out innocent where we start out as a sinner from birth. This is why we are in need of a Savior…because we are evil in nature from our birth. Adam chose to rebel and lost the nature of God that was deposited in him. We were, from the start, lost and dead in our sins. Let me show you this in scripture.
- “Therefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed onto all men, for all have sinned.” Romans 5:12
- “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Romans 5:19
- “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.” Romans 5:10
“As for you, you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
We all lived among them at one time in the cravings of our flesh, indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses.
It is by grace you have been saved! And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:1-7
Now Hear This! God did not make a bad man good. He made a dead man alive. Adam went from Butterfly to caterpillar and back again. Although Adam was a shadow of Jesus, the, “Coming One” foretold in Genesis, he too had to be, “Born Again” His faith had to be in the last Adam which is Jesus, the Christ and only begotten Son of God.
- “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” I Corinthians 15:45
- “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” I Corinthians 15:46
- “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” I Corinthian 15:47
So now we, who are, “Born Again” have two natures, flesh (evil) and Spirit (Godly). We are left with a free will to chose which spirit we will walk in. The Bible tells us to walk in the Spirit and we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16
You can look at a person and not know which spirit he or she is in. However, once they speak, you can immediately see the fruit of God’s Spirit or the Works of The Flesh. You will know whose child is whose, God or the devil. We chose the spirit that will rule in our hearts and we pledge our allegiance to its flag.
The odd thing is that we are both a caterpillar and a butterfly at our “New Birth” The choice has yet to be made as to which we will be on this earth. To be a butterfly, we must crucify the caterpillar in us. It is corrupt and cannot please God. It must die in the cocoon at the hands of the Word of God so that the “New Creature”, which is the butterfly, can live. It’s all up to us. As I mentioned previously, God takes no prisoners.
Cocoonie Tunes
Some caterpillars never enter their cocoons. They stay in the dirt of this world or hang out on a leaf filling themselves with all manner of flowers. Others enter into their cocoon but never emerge from it. They die in the process because of rebellion or fear of the future.
Then there is another group that will lay down its life, loosing it altogether only to find it again but in a new and living way that is beautiful and full of glory. These are the caterpillars that become butterflies and move and live and have their being in Christ.
Jesus told a story that kind of expresses this metaphor but in a little different way. He said…(To a crowd of folks on the seashore in Galilee)
“On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” Matthew 13:1-8
Jesus doesn’t use caterpillars but instead, he uses seed, which later He says is the Word of God, which is also the fabric of the cocoon in which the metamorphous takes place. Here’s what happens to the Seed (Word of God).
- Some fell by the wayside and the birds devoured it.
- Some fell in stony places where the soil was lacking and. The heat of the day destroyed the seedlings because they had no roots. They withered away.
- Some fell among thorns and were choked to death.
- Others fell in good ground and produced a harvest.
As a caterpillar that desires to become a butterfly, as God originally intended, it is important to pay attention to the Word of God. We must insure that it reaches good ground and that it takes root. You see, without it, you cannot be transformed and thus miss out on the glory of being God’s beautiful butterfly. The Word of God is essential. Our hearts must be made to be good ground so the seed can grow and bring forth fruit.
As in the parable of the sower, the seed is being scattered all around us. We hear it, see it and read it every day. Sadly, many ignore it and even deny its power to transform. But for those of us that seek to know and desire to be all that God wants us to be, we: Stop! Look! and Listen!
We can hear the tunes that play within our cocoon. They sing of praise, worship, love and many other great sympathies that are especially fashioned by the Holy Spirit just for us…and, as we emerge from the cocoon, we take them with us as a melody of hope and peace and love.
Conclusion
So what shall we say to all of these things? Shall we follow Jesus to the cross to experience Death, Burial and Resurrection?
Or shall we abide alone, never bringing forth a harvest of spiritual fruit; never entering the cocoon; never flying like a butterfly?
The sun is hot and is trying to wither us to death outside of our cocoon. The birds seek to devour our seed that would have grown into our cocoon. The thorns are rapidly springing up all around us trying to choke us to death before we can fly.
However, we control all of that and can be sure that the seed gets rooted in our hearts, if we so desire it to be. We can let the Word of God wash us clean and change our mindset so we can receive Godly thoughts and revelations from on high. Let the Cocoonie Tunes play their symphonies and rest in what God is doing in your life. He will finish the good work He started long ago. He has not forgotten you or left you to wither away. It is never too late to become a butterfly.
Just read John 3:16 and do what it says to do. This is the beginning of the greatest journey there could ever be. See you on the other side of the cocoon. We’ll fly together into eternal life with Jesus.
The Caterpillar
I once saw a caterpillar crawling down the street.
He had so many legs and even more feet.
He was as long as he could be.
He was a strange sight to see.
As I watched him crawl away,
I wondered what he did all day.
Does he just crawl around?
Can he talk or make a sound?
So I crawled behind him just to see,
Where he’d go and what he’d be.
For I was curious to know,
What he’d do and where he’d go.
All of a sudden he began to spin
And guess what happened then?
He spun himself into a web.
I thought, “He must be dead”
But to my sudden surprise,
There before my very eyes,
I watched him break that sticky web.
Then I knew he wasn’t dead.
I just couldn’t believe my eyes.
Boy what a beautiful surprise.
All those legs and all those feet,
No longer crawled down the street.
Like you, I wondered why, Until I saw him fly.
Off he flew into the sky Leaving me to wonder why.
Written By
Rev. John Marinelli