Every year at Easter my former congregation strung rows of paper butterflies across the ceiling of the sanctuary as a symbol of new life in Jesus Christ. The butter- flies were beautiful. Well, at least some were beautiful, those that were decorated by congregational members who possessed artistic ability or a keen eye for design. In fact most of the butterflies were rather ordinary, a soaring testimony to those of us with no sense for colors or for the dangers of excess glitter.
To be honest, I always preferred those ordinary butterflies flying in the paper canopy overhead. Resurrection in Christ is not a reward for earthly beauty, or for brains, or dollar bills. And not even for quilts sewn, nor prayer shawls knitted, no matter for what good cause. Instead, the resurrection was and is God’s amazing gift for ordinary, sinful, caterpillarish people like me. And like you.
In resurrection God says to all of us, “You are beautiful. You are loved. You are mine.”
This is taken from Signs of Resurrection, written by Audrey West, appearing in the April 2014 issue of Gather.