Where Do Butterflies Go When It Rains?

    

 

  For seven days it has rained without stopping.But the morning started out dry and I looked out my window to see blooms waking up everywhere.  I pulled on my boots and waded through my drenched garden, uncovering some garlic chives trying desperately to bloom underneath the goldenrod.  To my surprise, out fluttered a sleepy butterfly.  I suppose I woke him up and it made me wonder where butterflies go when it rains.  

For a butterfly, seven days of rain takes about half of their lifetime as they take shelter under leaves until the rains subside.  And if the rain is pounding as it has been in Atlanta this summer, sometimes their wings get torn and they die an untimely death.  I am relieved to see that the butterflies are alive and well after seven days.  In fact, I am envious of their playful nature, hanging lazily upside down, flying free in the dry, warm air, putting on a show for those who notice. 

Where do we go when it rains? Usually, we just plod through with an umbrella or a jacket.  But the rains in Atlanta have pelted our homes and gardens, creeped into our basements, swept away bridges and toppled trees.  Then what do we do?  We get to work, call repairmen and we wait.  We gather our candles and flashlights and for a little while it is quaint – the quiet that is - but we soon become impatient for life to resume some sense of normalcy. 

In offering a short devotional at a meeting, I really wanted to begin by saying, “Into every life a little rain must fall” trying to make a joke about our continuous rain, but I knew that it would be interpreted in a way where people would feel sad.  So I chose something safer to say. But I find lessons in the butterflies.  Oh, how we want to live life to the fullest.  Oh, how we want to “hang upside down” and fly through life with only sunshine. Maybe we tolerate a shower or two, but certainly none of us welcome rains that destroy and displace. 

One thing is for sure, we cannot predict the weather. We cannot predict the rainfall for our lives, nor would any of us want to know the forecast. But we can plan for rainy days, do everything we can to protect and provide, and then armed, we can seek shelter from the storm.  How?  Well, sometimes we hide like the butterflies – behind masks of self-preservation and a simple will to survive.  But healthier ways are to seek shelter with our family and friends. We find comfort in being with our church family. We find strength in personal study of scriptures like “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you” Isaiah 43:2.

It’s been dark and gloomy for a solid week. I’ve hidden myself a little.  But the sun is out.  The butterflies are beckoning.