I wonder if the caterpillar has the luxury of knowing that it will one day be a beautiful butterfly. In this case, life is easy for them because they already know what they’re destined to become. All they have to do is live, right? On the other hand, perhaps it doesn’t know and accepts that it is what it is and will always be a caterpillar. Maybe it actually encounters butterflies and admires them and wonders what it’s like to be them, not realizing that everything they hope for is already in them and has always been. They don’t even know that they, too, will one day be just as beautiful and even more than that; their hopes are exactly what they’re destined to become.

A lot of us accept being caterpillars and think of and hope for nothing more. While others of us do hope for something more, we get caught up in the cocoon phase. We tried for something! In the moment, it feels like hoping may have been a mistake. It seems tight, dark, and the more time passes, the more we feel like it’s getting less and less room to grow. I encourage you not to give up because maybe things aren’t the way that they seem. This is exactly where I am in my life, and I thought perhaps I’m not the only one who feels like they’re in a cocoon. Yeah, maybe it is tight and dark, and we can’t see what’s next. However, maybe we’re just being molded into our destinies.

Going back to the possibility of the caterpillar having the privilege of already knowing what it’s destined to be, we should try this attitude. Maybe the caterpillar survives all its phases because it holds on to the idea of where it is going and what it is becoming instead of being taken over by what and where it is right now.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans of welfare and peace, and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.