Butterflies and Mosquitos
For the past few weeks I’ve been having some trouble understanding things. It seems that there is sickness, sadness and trouble all around. The world we live in has gotten crazy. I tend to tune out the news these days because it’s filled with bad things that trouble my heart and cause me to worry. Worry can be healthy at times but, it’s pointless to worry about things out of your control.I am a worrier b y nature So, I try my hardest to tune out things that cause worry.
The things I can’t tune out are my family, friends and my close community. Even there my heart is troubled. I have several friends who are going through health problems, fertility problems, financial problems, and so on. On social media sites I see people in my community posting negative things going on in their lives.I just don’t hear a whole lot of good news from anyone these days. It’s very discouraging. I tend to let my mind wonder and ask questions why? I see so many people who aren’t living the way they should having the time of their lives, while good God fearing people struggle. Drug addicts who abandon their children for their next high continue to have them every year, yet many married couples who are trying to have children are faced with infertility issues. They don’t know if they will ever have children of their own. How a druggy who has thrown way everything good in their life can continue to live abusing their bodies everyday for years and never have severe health problems. Yet, children die just after taking their first breaths, good hearted God fearing, wives and mother’s get cancer, father’s have heart attacks and leave their wives and children behind. The world is just filled with such heartache and unanswered questions. This life doesn’t seem fair at all. I just can’t wrap my head around it at all.
Recently I am having some of my own medical problems myself. They aren’t serious but, they are scary for me. Afew weeks ago I started to get scared about having surgery to take my gall bladder out. Around that same time, a pretty black and orange butterfly started showing up on my front porch.
I like to sit out on my porch alone . It is calm and peaceful and I can take a break from not only my rambunctious toddler, pre teen and teenager but also the rest of the world. I can just sit and look at all the Beauty that God has created and just be at peace for afew moments at a time.
Around the same time that the butterfly showed up, the mosquitos did too. We had several really rainy days I believe they made my porch their home. At night time you cannot stand to sit on my porch. There are hundreds of mosquitos out there biting at your legs and arms. It’s absolutely horrible out there at night time. I went out there one night and came back in within afew minutes with itchy nasty bites all over my legs and arms. It’s treacherous. I keep my front door closed and try not to go out at all at night.
However, every day I know that the mosquitos will be gone, and the butterfly will be back. I will take my coffee out and sit and enjoy the sounds of the birds chirp as the little butterfly flies around. It has become very friendly. It flies around me almost as if it’s playing with me, and even lands on me from time to time. I’m not sure that I would pay attention or appreciate the beauty of that butterfly as much if it weren’t for the mosquitos at night.
This reminds me that life is alot like my front porch. There are dark times when it is treacherous and painful but it doesn’t stay like that forever. You can always look forward to the beauty of a new day. The birds will chirp again, and the butterflies will come back. Sometimes the darkness and the mosquitos in life, make us appreciate the butterflies and sunshine just a little bit more.
The great thing is, we don’t have to go through this life alone. We have God to turn to in our times of need. I don’t always have the answers to all of the questions I have. I don’t always know why things happen the way they do, but I can trust in the Lord that whatever happens, he knows. One of my very favorite Bible verses is Proverbs 3:5
It says:
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
I remind myself of this verse quite often. There are so so many things that are far beyond my understanding. I have to trust in Him!
I also have to remember that there is a time for everything. Everything has a season. As I have read in Ecclesiastes chapter 3. So what are we to do when we find ourselves stuck in the darkness with a thousand mosquitos? We have to trust, rejoice and pray without ceasing. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
It can be very scary, not knowing what the will of God for our life is but we have to trust in Him. He is the only one who knows the reason. Everything is his will. There’s nothing we can do to change it. I pray for so many things. Selfish things. Sometimes it is hard to remember to add the words “if it is your will, God”
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that everything is His will. It’s hard to see the reason. I think I get so wrapped up in this life here on earth. All the worry and the earthly things that I forget that this place just a passage to the next life. What happens here is just a vapor compared to what lies ahead for us in Heaven. This life is important. What we do, the choices we make will stick with us for an eternity but, our eternity is in Heaven not here on this earth. Everything we do in this life should be preparing for when we get to Heaven, where our real future begins. Where we will meet our Father and live eternally. The land where there is no pain and no sorrow. No darkness, no cancer, no heart disease, no drugs, none of the bad things that this earth has.
So for now, we endure the night and the mosquitos . No matter what this life throws at us we know that we can look ahead to the morning. One day we will be in a place where there are no mosquitos.
Leave a Reply