Sweetie

Once upon a time there was a young boy who had a caterpillar. The boy had a sister and both were being home schooled by their mother. She wanted them to see God’s fingerprints on every square inch of creation and believed science was a beautiful and essential part of that good creation. However, science textbooks made her feel as though her head was going to explode. So, she learned how to look for things like Monarch caterpillar eggs hidden underneath milkweed leaves and gave those to her children instead of books.

The boy’s caterpillar hatched from its egg and began to eat and grow, and the boy named him Sweetie, for that was what his mother often called him. Perhaps he thought Sweetie was the name given to all people and creatures that are deeply, deeply loved.

Each morning, the boy padded downstairs in his footed blanket sleeper, picked up the plastic container which held Sweetie, and plopped it down next to him on the breakfast table. The boy’s Cheerios grew soggy as he watched Sweetie slowly and methodically munch away on milkweed leaves. The boy seemed mesmerized, eyes fixed upon the caterpillar, thumb secured in his mouth. The mother wondered if even video games would have lured the boy away from watching his caterpillar. Secretly, this pleased her.

One day, the caterpillar climbed to the top of his container and hung himself upside down in the form of the letter “J,” as caterpillars are wont to do. The next morning, in place of Sweetie was a jewel-like, jade-green chrysalis, flecked in gold, bearing the fingerprints of the Maker of all things beautiful. After about two weeks, Sweetie emerged according to the Maker's design and just as described in science textbooks, should anyone bother to read them.

The boy carried Sweetie outside, placing him on the hydrangea bush next to the house so that his wings could dry. He, his sister, and mother left for gymnastics class, all wondering if Sweetie would still be there when they returned. When the boy got home, he was thrilled to discover his butterfly waiting for him on the bush. The mother, however, was horrified to find that Sweetie had wandered into a spider’s web and was helpless to escape.

Without a word, the mother sent the boy and his sister into the house. Her husband returned home to find her slowly and gently trying to disentangle Sweetie’s feet from the web of his captor.

“You’re upsetting the balance of nature,” he said.

“I don’t care!” replied the mother. “This is not happening. Not here. Not now. Not to my son’s butterfly!”

And so, for the love of her own dear son, the mother released Sweetie from the snare of the one seeking his destruction. She set him free to live out the ordained lifespan of a Monarch butterfly which, according to science textbooks, lasts roughly one year.

And now the mother watches her own dear son struggle to emerge from his boyhood chrysalis, knowing that he, too, has an enemy who preys upon him.  She knows that this enemy spins webs designed to entangle the feet of her son, and that she will be powerless to release him from the captor's snare should he wander into one of them. And so she prays to the One who loves her dear son even more than she, the One who demonstrated His love by sacrificing His own beloved Son to crush the enemy’s head, and set all captives free.