I wonder if a butterfly knows how beautiful it is. Is it aware how incredible the designs are that it carries on its wings? I don't think so. Not unless someone tells it so. And, similarly, we may not realize or see our own beauty, value, or worth unless someone notices, tells us, or reminds us of our beautiful design, or unless God Himself gives us a fresh revelation of its exquisiteness. I'm glad someone told me thirty years ago, and I'm grateful for the people in my life, who've faithfully reminded me of God's perspective of my heart from His point of view. Most of all, I'm grateful for the Lord's persistent and patient reaffirmation of who I am in Him, and the beauty of my heart, because of the cross. Before I met Him, there truly was not much beauty within. Without Him, I'd still feel ugly inside.
Before I came to know the Lord, I'd always struggled with my own sense of value and worth. Even as a child, I never felt beautiful, and that carried into high school. I was skinny and freckled on the outside, and felt just as ugly on the inside. I'd hardened. I became an introvert, and never wanted to be noticed. Tossed around from home-to-home, in and out of foster care, there was a time I felt that I was too ugly to love, and because of that, I was unable to love. But God knew better, and after I accepted His love and His sacrifice, I felt a softening, a warmth, and a flame of fire enveloped my heart, and slowly I began to emerge, and people noticed as my "design" changed.
If, after salvation, we still feel ugly inside, then something is wrong. When we feel beautiful inside, that's the Holy Spirit; that's the Lord residing in us. A beautiful metamorphosis takes place, and suddenly, His beauty shines from within, and the whole world sees His colors, His design, through you. His colors are iridescent and penetrating, and are able to break through even the hardest of hearts. Unless we fill ourselves up with His color: His beauty, His love, His warmth, His friendship, His intimacy; we can't love ourselves, or see ourselves as He sees us, and sadly then, the world won't see Him through us, either. We need to be full of His iridescent, glimmering, shiny, sparkly, and penetrating, color! His colors are His promises: to heal, save, deliver, love! Every shimmering hue is His grace, His mercy, His majesty, His power!
The world won't see Him through us unless we are full of Him. They won't see Him if we don't love ourselves. They won't see Him if we don't see Him.
If you ever have the chance to see the underside of a butterfly's wings, the part you view as it sits with its wings closed, you might be surprised to find that they're drab and dull in color. That was me as a child. I sat with my wings closed, hoping to camouflage myself from further pain and hurt, just as a butterfly blending into a bush or tree to hide from predators. It's only when the wings open, that it's brilliant color and iridescent hues can be observed. But wow. How could I open them when I was afraid to fly? If I showed my true colors, what would people think? What would they see, a beautiful butterfly, or an ugly moth? I still struggle with that now, but the difference between then and now is, I know who I am, in Him and because of who He is, I'm not afraid to show my colors, because they are His colors; every shimmery promise in a rainbow of iridescent hues glisten in all of my encounters and in every situation. They truly are His colors. Do you know that a butterfly's wings are actually clear and not colored at all? The colors are a result of the way light reflects from the pigment on the underside of tiny scales that cover the wings. Before salvation, we too are "drab", without color because we haven't got the Light. When God's light shines through our hearts, the world will see His glorious, colorful beauty!
God created our hearts beautiful and fragile like a butterfly's wings, and He also created them strong enough to soar through life's heartache and sorrow, however, we can't fly without Him. We can't love ourselves without Him. We can't love others without Him. We can't overcome without Him.
Butterflies can't fly without sunshine
A butterfly cannot fly without sunshine. When at rest, they bask and position their wings at a right angle to the incoming rays of sunlight. The warmth from basking transfers to its thoracic flight muscle, thus enabling it to fly. And that's the only way we can love, overcome, and draw closer to Him, by basking in the warmth of His love, through the pursuit of His own heart. In doing so, we soar, and are able to overcome, but even more importantly, our hearts become colored with His colors?noticeable, for all to see, and we suddenly find ourselves with His patina all over us; shining examples of His love, mercy, and lovingkindness.
God's been speaking to me a lot lately about the heart, not only ours, but His. His heart is burdened right now, and I'd like to share with you what He's shared with me about understanding our own hearts, so that we can understand His and His burden. I hope it speaks to you.
On that day of creation, when He created your heart, He created it just like His! He didn't share His heart; He gave you His heart. From the moment He breathed life into you, it was His Spirit that entered into you heart, and therefore, His heart, in you. And it was a perfect heart; void of pain, sorrow, and heartache. He created it with an infinite capacity to love. He designed it soft and supple, easily malleable to receive all of His goodness. Every star, every flower, every blade of grass, and ultimately, every fleck of dust and sand He created, for the purpose of creating you. And all the while He did so, His thoughts of you were more in number than the sand (Ps. 139:18). And from the sand and dust, He formed us. Have you ever seen a sculptor work? Next time you do, watch his face as he takes the lump of clay to shape. He already knows what he's going to create; he's thought about it, and you can almost see the thoughts in his expression. I think if the angels watched as God sculpted man, they would have seen the expression of innumerable thoughts as He did. They would have seen His excitement and perhaps a sparkle in His eye, as He worked on His greatest masterpiece. When He breathed life into you, His breath set the cadence of your own heartbeat in tune with His precious one. The moment He fathomed you, the love in His heart overflowed and became infinite for you. Yes, He fashioned you from His infinite love.
Our hearts are breakable
Do you know that His heart is breakable? That means that yours is too, but it's not a design flaw. His heart breaks for the hurting, the oppressed, the sick, the leper, the diseased, the orphan, the widow, the abused, the blind, the captive, and the dying, and that's why He sent His son, because His heart broke for mankind and He wanted to save us from death. He created your heart to break too. It's how He created it, though not for the purpose of hurting you, but for the purpose of burdening you for the lost, just as His heart burdened for you. The laborers are few, and time is short, and He needs you to break for the hurting.
Are you wondering if your heart is big enough? Your heart has the capability of being as big as His. The more love it holds, the greater its capacity. It swells, and the more of Him you put in it, the bigger it gets. When you give of His love to others, to the captive, to the unlovable, He not only replenishes the love, but your heart stretches and grows to receive even more from Him to share. However, if that love doesn't break free, or spill over, the heart shrinks, and you feel full and satisfied with little and there's no room for God to fill it. It remains at the same level, or less, and eventually there's nothing extra to share. We keep what remains inside and seldom let it overflow to others.
Then, the enemy tries to plunder our heart's contents. He attempts to make the sweet honey of God's love sour, to harden its tenderness, and reduce its capacity. Sometimes we let him, and at other times, we're unaware we're allowing him to do so. We worry and fret, and become too busy, and the measure of love in our heart dwindles as the enemy saps our stores. But if it's full of God, there's no room for anything else. When the enemy steals or destroys, we're to seek to refill and restore our hearts with more of God, more of His color.
Our Hearts are Stretchable
He tells me that our hearts are infinitesimally stretchable! That our heart's capacity to love is infinite, just like His! When we walk with Him, and pursue His heart, His presence, His friendship, our own hearts will fill to overflowing. His infinite love will continuously refill our hearts, so let it overflow! "Let it be broken, let it leak, let it weep for the lost"; for the captive because His love is infinite, because the supply is endless, and because your heart has been created to contain an immeasurable amount of His infinite love. Yes, He fathomed and fashioned you from His infinite love. He designed it to be broken. He will restore that which is lost at the hands of the enemy, and your brokenness for the lost will be rewarded with the sweet, liquid honey of His love and nearness. The love He's already poured into your heart is enough for the harvest. His love is uncontainable, and as big as you'll allow Him to stretch your heart, know that He will fill it. He'll fill it for the masses, for the multitudes, for your neighbor, your enemies, your children, your city, your church, your workplace. He'll fill it for the ugly, the outcast, and the leper. And He'll fill it for you, with innumerable gifts. He wants you to share His burden, His brokenness for the dying, for your neighbor, and those in need, for when you do, you'll truly know His heart.
Fill er up!
If it doesn't feel full, it's because you haven't pursued Him. Butterflies often congregate along streams and rivers to drink water, and extract minerals from the mud and the water. They nourish themselves for their next flight. How well are you nourished? Have you filled yourself up with God? Have you come to the Source of all of your supply to drink of His cleansing stream? Are you basking in the warmth of His love? Butterflies gain strength from the sun. Have you positioned yourself under the warming ray of His presence?
Dear ones, He loves you, and He loves your heart too, and He wants to fill it to overflowing with Himself, not only for you, but for the captive, too; for those the enemy has plundered. Yes, its design is perfect, delicate, fragile, but strong too. But first, in order to receive all that He has for you for others, you have to see the beauty of your own heart, through His eyes, and through His heart. When you do see and know His heart through the eyes of your own, you'll truly grasp the meaning of His infinitesimal, unconditional, and incredible love, and then your soul too, will travail for the lost, and through you, His colors will shimmer with His glorious brilliance, and multitudes more will one day also meet our precious Lord and Savior in the sky. When we truly know His heart, and His heart colors are in us, then others will see His beauty too.
