A few weeks ago, our granddaughter, Hannah (my Kitten), was with us. This past week, her sister, Kayla (my Lamb) stayed with us for two weeks. Kayla will tell you about it.
When I went to spend two weeks at Grandma and Grandpa Linzey's house, we had a good time. I slept in the pink room just like Hannah did a couple of weeks earlier.
Every morning I got up, made my bed, (Grandpa taught me how) and played outside until Grandma had breakfast ready. After breakfast, we usually read the Bible. Sometimes we went to stores, but afterwards Grandma helped me with my English lessons. After I finished my lessons and helped Grandma, then went outside. Sometimes I gathered pine needles and wove them into mats or boats. That was fun.
Then we went to Branson! We found a nice-looking place to play miniature golf. I didn't win, but it was fun. Well, it wasn't fun when I thought I hit my ball into the water. But we found it just beside the water.
The next day Grandma and I went to the Butterfly Palace. I call it the Flutterby Palace. I never saw that many butterflies before in my life! When I entered the butterfly room, I went through the booth with chains dangling on both sides. The chains were there to keep the butterflies from escaping.
The pathway was paved, and on both sides there were raised beds. The beds had rock walls, and many different plants grew there. The ceiling was a skylight made of glass, and was held up by iron beams. I walked further and saw a purple geode that was cut open and set together so that it looked like a butterfly.
As I walked around a bend, I saw a bench shaped like a butterfly, and a little yellow glass flower to feed the butterflies. A waterfall was coming out of a greyish white rock wall and water was falling gently onto some pebbles where ferns were growing. It was interesting that some birds were also there, but they don't eat butterflies. There were many kinds of birds, and I saw a dish in one of the raised beds to feed them. One bird had a really complicated coloring: orange, black, light orange, white, and other colors.
Near the end of our walk, we saw a glass window. Looking through it, I could see where they kept the chrysalises safe in see-through containers. The Butterfly Palace has a lot of chrysalises because they breed a lot of their own butterflies. It was really interesting. Grandpa calls butterflies "flying worms," but "butterflies" sounds better.
I can hardly wait to go back.
Adding to my Lamb's report, the Butterfly Palace also has a display of the 4-stage metamorphosis life cycle of one of the blue butterflies: Eggs, caterpillar, chrysalis, and the butterfly emerging from the cocoon.
The worms, or caterpillars, eat voraciously, then wrap themselves up and cease to exist as earthbound worms, emerging later as ... okay, I call them flying worms. It's the worm-to-flyer cycle that intrigues me. Why? It reminds me of humanity.
The worms spend their pre-chrysalis days crawling and eating. Humans get annoyed at the damage they do to gardens, food sources, and sometimes clothing. Obsessed with staying alive, the critters consume everything they can.
That's what reminds me of some people. They are so obsessed with promoting themselves and pushing their own agendas, that they step on, belittle, and degrade anyone who gets in their way. What's worse is that they feel justified as they hurt others in the process.
But the caterpillar eventually stops eating, makes its bed, and goes to sleep. As it dies to itself, it is transformed by a power not of its own. After emerging, its wings spread out, firm up, and it rises in splendor to heights it could never before imagine.
This is what can happen to people when we accept Jesus into our lives. If we truly learn to cooperate with Jesus and accept His desires for us, we stop pushing others around. Assisted by a power not of our own, we die to our own pride and ambition, and help others instead of promoting ourselves. If we obey God, He will take care of us, and will enable us to rise in splendor to a glorious eternity with Him in heaven.
--THIS REFLECTION WAS WRITTEN BY KAYLA M. CRAWFORD AND S. EUGENE LINZEY WHO IS AUTHOR OF CHARTER OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. SEND COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS TO [email protected]. VISIT HIS WEBSITE AT WWW.GENELINZEY.COM. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHORS.