They don’t think of us at all of course, that’s just my wild overdeveloped right brain’s idea. I’m talking about monarch butterflies. You know them, don’t you? Those orange with black striped powerhouses that migrate some 3,000 miles to Mexico from all over the country only to return in the spring from whence they came. (Monarchs deserve words like “whence” I think.)
Here at the Harrill household we’re a little crazy for monarchs. We’ve torn up turf and planted a decidedly small meadow, complete with milkweed, the favored food of the caterpillars. We’ve tagged the migrators for scientific research groups dedicated to monarch preservation. My youngest has put splints on a couple of wounded-winged monarchs and watched them flutter off for parts unknown. We’ve collected the caterpillars to protect them from predators at their vulnerable metamorphosis stage of chrysalis formation and released them when they hatch. We do all this – but they don’t give us a second thought. Not at all. They just fly off to Mexico unaware that some of them owe us their very lives.
And it makes me think (because unlike monarchs I can) – how much do I think about what God has done for me? Paul says this – “For in Him we live, move, and have our being.” Simply put, we don’t exist without Him. And yet, do I think about it? Do I look at every breath as a grace given me from Him? Do I go about my day consciously thinking of how He animates me? Do I, in this existence of mine, place my whole self in relation to Him? In the final analysis, I’m convinced God works for the attention He deserves from us every day. Today, He even used monarchs… even though they didn’t think of me at all….