CATTERPILLARS CANNOT FLY Caterpillars cannot fly. You need to know that, if you did not know it. You need to remember that, if you had forgotten it. You need to understand that caterpillars really cannot fly. It is not that they do not want to fly. No. Even if they tried to fly, they could not do it. They are but worms that enjoy feeding on green leaves and hence crawl all over to get the food that they so much like and need. They have neither wings nor transcendental powers by which to navigate through the air. Therefore they cannot fly. Even if you take a caterpillar and lift it up, the moment you let go of it is the moment it will start plummeting down as fast as it is pulled by the force of gravity. It will continue falling fast until it lands on something or hits hard on the ground. Of course it is possible that it may end up in a ditch. Whichever way it goes, a caterpillar has no means of supporting itself on air and so cannot fly. Now there are people who are at a caterpillar stage of their lives. They just cannot fly. There is no point in talking to them about things that they are neither equipped to deal with nor appreciative of those things’ value. Take a baby as an instance. She may be good at nestling and drinking milk any time of day and night but has no appetite for porridge because she is still at the caterpillar stage of life as a baby as it were. There is absolutely no point in holding an infant by hand and expecting her to walk when she is still at that stage where her legs have not developed enough to carry her weight, the stage where her sense of balance has not been developed enough to know how to counter the forces that would throw her off balance. A recognition that this is an infant who feeds on infant food, has to be bathed and dressed as an infant, will not change her diapers no matter how much they are soiled, as an infant; this recognition will obviate a lot of unnecessary pain and sorrow and spare many from moments of embarrassment mingled with humiliation. Apart from the physical dimension, there is the spiritual application to this truth. Some people are still at the caterpillar stage of their Christian living. They have come to the realisation that salvation is by grace through Christ. They have repented of their sins. They have received Jesus as their personal Saviour. They have even been baptized in water. However that is just about all that they are currently aware of and comfortable with. They are still at the crawling stage where they have to be fed with the word bit by bit. They currently have no idea about the power that is derived from the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Neither do they make sense of the gift of tongues or speaking in other languages. They are yet to appreciate the teaching on tithes and the beauty of offering. Taking such a man and telling him to say after you, ‘Dada dada dada! Rakanaka rakashata seemyfoot and seemytie!” as a way of speaking in ‘tongues’ is like trying to have a chicken pretend it can swim when it is standing on your hand that is barely under water and dragging it along. The greater fool is the one who holds the chicken than the chicken itself because, for all the price of oil in Iraq, the chicken couldn’t care two cents about swimming because it was neither designed to swim nor does it desire to play in water. Some people may be mature in body and spirit but are still caterpillars in their vision. They can only see what has been produced by the man next door and will copy not only the model but even the colour of the product. They will not only copy the music composed by some composer but will simulate the moves of the original artist in their quasi-rendition. Not only do they regurgitate sermons that they heard from men of God but will attempt to project the same diction as the one of the original preacher. Trying to discuss deep matters of spiritual vision with such people is futile as it will only frustrate the visionary and annoy the non-visionary. It is like trying to discuss the plans for taking care of carrots that you see on the other side of some durawall with a man who cannot even see the durawall. Caterpillars cannot fly, period! The same principle can be extended to social and professional relationships, marriage included. Some friendships are at the caterpillar stage where they have to be constantly propped up with presents or presence. Once evidence of emotional attachment is removed then the partners feel as if they are no longer appreciated or loved. This stage confuses giving with loving and hence is susceptible to being abused by the enemy. Many have lost their direction and some ended up six feet under ground for lack of discernment. They have taken the bait of the fisherman as evidence of love and having done so, ended up dancing in the fisherman’s frying pan with salt sprinkled over their tenderised bodies. Granted love is demonstrated by its giving nature. However giving on its on is no evidence of love. In brief, while love certainly gives, not all giving is indeed love. The caterpillar cannot tell the distinction between a genuine tree’s leaf and one of a parasite. All it does is eat and eat until it cannot eat anymore. Fortunately for the egg, the caterpillar does not naturally remain so for all the life span of the creature. There comes a time when the caterpillar decides that it has had enough of the leaves, a time when it gets fed up of being fed up of being fed on leaves, a time when it longs for more than perpetual crawling and wriggling from branch to twig in order to get some green leaves in it. This is when the caterpillar involuntarily spews out some white fluid which, when in contact with air, turns into silk that can halt the movement of many. The caterpillar turns against itself in body as it were, imprisons itself and seals itself in some seamless box. That is how it goes into a cocoon for a season, releasing from within it a substance that will end up with it encased by the resultant cocoon. And yet that does not signify death but is a mere phase in the process of life. While it marks the end of feeding on leaves, it also marks the beginning of an exciting period of flight without fight and flight in the light. In short, a cocoon is not a coffin. A COCOON IS NOT A COFFIN Debates may rage on as to what a cocoon is and arguments ensue until dead cows come home. Definitions may be coined according to the commonly crafted currency and agreements signed as to what a cocoon is. Yet all of those will never bring a definitive definition, a definition that definitely defies further definition of what a cocoon is. While it may be difficult to pinpoint a single and all embracing definition of a cocoon, there is no argument about what it is not. Hence the wise will at times describe something by what it is not so as to lead towards what it is. This is more so when dealing with cases that may be on the borderline with being at the caterpillar stage of universal understanding. So we state that a cocoon is not a coffin. To say it is not a coffin suggests knowledge of what a coffin is. To call it a coffin suggests what has been decided as the purpose of that thing. Regardless of its shape or side, a coffin is designed to contain the remains of the consequences of death. A coffin is used to bury the body of the dead. A coffin comes alive where there has been a death. While the identity of something is in its source, the name of the thing is according to the intended use or purpose of that thing. Though the identity of wood is in the tree, the name of a rafter or chair is in the purpose of that wood. Since that which the caterpillar spins and gets into is not intended to take on the remains of the dead caterpillar, then it cannot be a coffin. A cocoon is a place of transformation. That the caterpillar goes into the cocoon does not mean that it is dead. On the contrary, it is setting itself for a change in phase into a more refined and less rudimentary means of living and a more elegant phase of existence. Unlike the animals that hibernate underground or in caves in winter, only to come out thinner in spring, the complete caterpillar does not hibernate in a cocoon. There is total transformation that takes place out of sight of the naked eye as the appetite for leaves is replaced by a taste for nectar. The hairy body is replaced by a slim and winged head, thorax and abdomen. The many legs are replaced by half a dozen that can gently land on flowers or hang loose under the body in full flight. The tendency to be in close contact with other caterpillars is replaced by the pride of solitary but elegant flight in the atmosphere. Old habits are gradually replaced by new styles of living as the level of existence is redefined to a higher order. Externally nothing seems to be happening but within the cocoon is a miracle in the making. What goes into the cocoon never emerges the same. It is therefore important to note that even in your life there are moments when you have to go into your cocoon for your good. These are times when you are deep in meditation, away from the crazy crown and far from the maddening mob. You keep to yourself and seem to have no friend or companion. You may appear to be not well understood by others and may be misclassified as suffering from the moody blues. Whichever way it is, that there seems to be no hive of activity external to your being in your living does not symbolize that you are dead. Far from it. That is the time when you are recharging your batteries and gearing up for rising up in a higher gear than ever before. That is when you are reflecting on your current project and waiting upon the Lord to take you to a higher level of operation. That is when you count stock of your ministry and seek after a clearer vision of where you want to go as well as a strategy of how to get there. You will no longer be content with what you already are but will be questing for that which you can become but are not yet. You find yourself encased in a cocoon but not embalmed in a casket. You hear of men dubbed mighty men of God who have spent long periods of time away from the masses, in solitary living in the bush or desert, men like John who was styled the Baptist, Moses, the run away murderer who came back as the liberator of his people, the Martin Luther monk who spent hours on end alone with God ending up protesting against the status quo to the point of being kicked out of the prison of religiosity and becoming the very seed for the protestant movement, the Mohammed Ali who spent hours on end behind closed doors, training in the gym with strong sparring partners, ending up the greatest in his area of boxing, the ice cool Bjorn Borg whose nerves of still were developed as he spent most of his life away from the public eye to perfect his game of tennis, the Strive Masiyiwa who spent years seemingly at loggerheads with the establishment to establish his cellular telephone system that became the ice breaker of modern communication in Zimbabwe and the world as Econet, indeed even the Gilbert Mzenzi Mabasa who spent nights on end in meditation and under inspiration, touching keys and sending messages across the internet across the lands, ending up in touch with men and women of a mighty God who all added value to each other for the benefit of humanity. You know the moments when you have had to get away from situations so that you come back to them at a better level. The Messiah made it a practice to steal away from the crowd and go up the mountain or some secluded place to restore his energy and hear more from his father for the work to be done. Moments of isolation from the hive of activity are a sign of or rather an opportunity for introspection and realignment of vision for the greater glory and more productivity than ever before. It is fitting that the caterpillar goes into the cocoon so that it may seemingly die from being a caterpillar and be rebirthed into something better. It is vital that the cocoon stage be recognised for what it is not, that it is not a coffin. It is important that we appreciate that there is no hibernation in the cocoon but transformation. When all that can take place in the cocoon has taken place, the butterfly breaks out of the cocoon in beauty and splendour as only the divine could have designed and produced. That is the miracle of recreation, a miracle of rebirth as it were, that the crawling caterpillar that cannot fly enters into the cocoon that is not a coffin in order for the beautiful butterfly to break out free and flying high on delicate yet resplendent wings. BUTTERFLIES DO NOT EAT LEAVES The butterfly’s struggle to break out of the cocoon is part of nature’s process of strengthening its wings and sharpening its vision. Do not help it in this process as any assistance you render may mark the end of that butterfly’s beautiful flight, and, in due course, its life altogether. Each string that is broken stretches the veins of the butterfly and allows for blood to be pumped into the initially folded and seemingly withered wings. The push with feeble feet is the first press up exercise that builds up muscles essential for active movement seeing as muscles cannot be built by watching them in the mirror but by working out. There is therefore a working out that is essential for you as God’s child if you are to develop from the caterpillar stage through your cocoon stage. You have to face your challenger. You have to carry your cross. You have to run your race. You have to fight your portion of the battle that was already won for you by Christ Jesus, whom you received as your Lord and Saviour. You have to take time to organise your resources and then put into action your plans. You have to sit up and write if you are pregnant with books or music. You have to take a chisel and hammer and have a go at some soapstone or wood if you are pregnant with sculptures. You have to turn the pages of the Bible and read to understand if you are bent on mastering what God says in his word. Break out of the mental cocoon and let the wings God has given you loose for flight. Break out of that emotional cocoon and be exuberant for your master. Break out of that business cocoon and launch into new areas that you never touched before. Expect no one to carry you, though some will stand by you and encourage you. Expect no one to believe for you though some will share with you the truth that they have believed. Expect no one to enter for you though some will definitely point out to you the door into which they have entered. Each fly full of butter must break out of its cocoon in time to enjoy the spring sunshine and satiate itself with the nectar in season and not out of season. With the cool spring air in abundance and the sun’s warm rays shooting down, the butterfly darts from branch to twig, caught by the beauty of the flowers and the sweet aroma that flows from the pollen within the petals. The long proboscis that developed out of the caterpillar while in the cocoon comes in hand as the petite creature digs deep into the flower and drinks to its fill. The butterfly has the freedom of the airwaves as it has no demarcation in its movement. However it has to watch out for birds of prey that admire beauty mostly with their tongues. It also has to be careful not to land on sticky staff that may halt its progress. This is an exciting period when things seem so, so, so full of wonder that they are said to be really wonderful. In spiritual nomenclature this is when the brother or sister has made it. Praying comes easy. Tithing is as natural as sowing. Giving has become second nature. Speaking in tongues flows like changing stations on a radio tuner. Discernment of different spirits in the body is as easy as opening a safe when you have the password. Making friends out of strangers becomes a beauty that those still at the caterpillar stage marvel at. Challenges present themselves in many forms and yet each is met with an appropriate response. People are developed. Time is redeemed. Money is made. All are dealt with as befitting one who was given dominion over all creation, the dominion that respects creation and handles even the garden tools with sensitivity tainted with sensibility. It is well and good that you get to the butterfly stage of your ling. However that you are at that refined stage does not extinguish the other preceding stages. Though you fly high like a butterfly, you will still come across caterpillars. When you see them crawling into your office, do not despise them. When you see them wriggling in some church conference, do not chase them away. When you see caterpillars intruding into your business world do not mock them. You will see them enthusiastically trying to impress you with how many somersaults they can do in three minutes or how fast they can move the wrinkles on their bodies from neck to tail. Some will even show off the speed at which they can tear down some green Mopani tree leaves. Whatever they do or proclaim, do not put them down. While you may be tempted to take time to watch and be indeed impressed by their talent at their level, do not join them. However many they may gather in their fashion and after their style, do not join them. It is not because you look down upon caterpillars that you do not join them, not at all. It is not because you cannot come down to the level where they crawl and munch, not at all. It is not because you take pride in your wings that you do not join them, no no no. Whatever the situation may be, the reason you must never join caterpillars is for your survival. If you join them before long you will be dead among them while they live on over your dead body. The reason you should never join caterpillars when you are now a butterfly is simply because Butterflies don’t eat leaves. You are now on a different diet from that of caterpillars. Therefore have no fellowship with them. While some still survive on comics and cartoons, you are on a higher level of writings. While some enjoy the revision or dubbed sermons by the great preachers of the word of God in this world, you go for the original word in the holy bible. While some chase after the many channels on television or download tones from the many websites, you direct your attention and feed on the living word of God. While some are excited at the themes of Daniel and Revelation to the exclusion of all others, you take all from Genesis to Revelation. While some specialize on the charismatic movement to the detriment of sound doctrine, you feed on the total gospel. While some have advanced arguments on which portion of the days of the said week are to be set aside and remembered as also kept holy, you have come to the realisation that keeping the day holy when you are holey is most unholy. Furthermore, you have come to the realisation that the first day of the week depends on when you start counting and will determine your seventh day of your week. While caterpillars look for evidence to support their choice, according to how their appetites were shaped by their grannies cooking at their infancy, you have broken out of the cocoon and now know that this is the day that the Lord has made. You now make no qualms about which way to face when talking to God as you know that God is Spirit and his worshipers worship him in spirit and in truth. Though caterpillars advance cases for and against whether to tithes from the net or gross salary, you know that a salary belongs to an employee while the harvest belongs to the one who works and is never paid for her labour. What ever happens and wherever you are, fly among caterpillars if they crawl high enough to be on branches where you want to pick pollen and nectar. Dance among caterpillars should you have reason to come down to their level. Indeed take a look at them if need be, but do not join them because butterflies do not eat leaves. You are on a different diet now and so must respect that though you broke out of the cocoon into which the caterpillar went, you will never become a caterpillar again. Hope is there for the caterpillar to become a butterfly one day, assuming it avoids the frying pan of those who enjoy its taste or is not taken up by birds of prey. Enjoy your flight and move among flowers as the butterfly that you are because it is in collecting your food out of flowers that you also pollinate the same so that there is continuous growth and development in nature. Fly high and swoop low as you please but know that you also have an obligation to lay eggs that must hatch into caterpillars. EGGS HATCH INTO CATTERPILLARS We have moved from where we noted that caterpillars cannot fly though they enjoy eating leaves to where we saw the caterpillar get into a cocoon to curb its appetite for leaves and hope for a better life on wings. We realised that though nothing seems to happen on the outside, a cocoon is not a coffin because there is life in it. Contrary to the hibernation of animals in winter, animals that go in as fat rabbits and come out later as lean rabbits, as an example, the cocoon is not a place of hibernation but a place of transformation. The caterpillar that enters the cocoon never comes out again. Instead the butterfly breaks out of where in went the caterpillar. We were sensitised to the need not to feel dead just because we are going through a transition in our relationships or levels of understanding. Being in solitude is healthy and not the same as being lonely. It is possible to be alone, in solitude, without being lonely. It is also possible to be lonely though in a crowd. Many without Christ are lonely while surrounded by an abundance of material things. Great as it is for the butterfly to enjoy riding the waves in the air and drinking from the sweet pools of pods and flowers, it must not join caterpillars because of the change in diet. Marvellous as the life may seem for the beautifully winged one, the purpose is beyond pollinating flowers for more fruit to be produced from the twigs. What good would it be for the butterfly to facilitate for the reproduction of the trees while it remained ready to be extinct? Evidence of life is reproduction after itself. Rather more accurately, the goodness of being alive is in being able to reproduce, each after its kind. That is why God said it was not good for Adam to be alone because he could not reproduce after his kind. He had no womb and so God had to modify the design, clone a portion of his body to make another body, which became woman, an extension of man, and gave that one the womb through which the seed in man could be given the body essential for existence in human form. Likewise the butterfly has an obligation to ensure the continued existence of its kind. This is why it has an obligation to lay eggs that must, in turn, hatch into caterpillars. One butterfly lays many eggs. Each egg hatches into one caterpillar. One caterpillar turns into one butterfly. It is the last stage of the life cycle that must birth and birth more than its number. This means that each of God’s children, once delivered by the blood of Jesus, has an obligation to lay eggs that must hatch into caterpillars. Each of us must spread the word of God to the people who as yet do not know Jesus Christ at a personal level, people who as yet do not have a personal relationship with God through his one and only birthed son, God incarnate. This is an obligation for all those who have gone past the cocoon stage. Plant the seed in the person as that equates to laying an egg. The seed will germinate and the resultant child, like a caterpillar, will have to grow into repentance and maturity in the complete Christian walk. Some will turn out to be prophets. Others will be apostles. Some will be evangelists. Yet some will become pastors. Indeed some will turn out to be teachers. Many eggs are laid by one butterfly and hatch into many caterpillars, with each egg producing a caterpillar. The egg is potential that must be hatched into life. Your business needs to lay some eggs so that it grows beyond its current level. If you do not have a business at all then the idea in you needs to lay an egg that will result in the inception of that business. Your ministry must lay eggs that will hatch into more ministries. Touch other people and bring out of them ministries that they may currently not even be aware of having. The wings of the butterfly are in the egg of the butterfly just as much as the fangs of the serpent are in the egg of the serpent. The claws of the eagle are in the egg of the eagle just as the might of the warrior are in the egg of the worrier. One mature Christian developing many more Christians and encouraging the many developed Christians to develop others is the strategy that will see the saints win the lost world to Christ Jesus. It is possible and essential. It begins with each one of us taking our right position and doing what we have to do regardless of what others do or do not do. The butterfly does not first consult other butterflies whether or not they should lay eggs. Neither does it determine what will happen to the caterpillars that hatch out of its eggs. All that it does is, in appreciation and response to having broken through the cocoon and not despised the caterpillars, it lays eggs to continue the cycle into the next generation. That the student may end up doing more than the teacher should not be a deterrent for the teacher to teach the student. That the son may have more children than the father is no excuse for the father to opt for celibacy. That the apprentice may set up a big business of his own before the artisan is no reason for the artisan to deny the apprentice skills essential for the trade. That his disciples would do greater works than him was partly why Jesus sent the church the Holy Spirit. That you and I can network across the lands and reach out to more people than was ever possible only a few years ago is part of the reason why the risen Saviour intercedes for us at the right hand of the father. Let us therefore appreciate that ours is to lay eggs that will hatch into caterpillars that cannot fly but get eventually get into cocoons that are not coffins out of which break butterflies that do not eat leaves. The chain must not be broken. We are saved to serve and commissioned to be on mission. We need each other and owe it to each other to share because we care. This is the essence of life as God would allow us to have. Ours is to choose and implement what is right for us right away. Caterpillars cannot fly. A cocoon is not a coffin. Butterflies do not eat leaves. Eggs hatch into caterpillars. Know where you are at what time and what is expected of you then and appreciate that others may not yet be where you are or may already be where you are yet to be. Harmony is possible where there is recognition of our difference and an acknowledgement that it is only where there is a difference that harmony can take place, voluntarily. Let us therefore have harmony in Christ Jesus as people of one spirit, one body, one baptism, one mind and one God. God’s purpose for our lives will then be fulfilled as we realise our full potential and make the world a better place to be for all. ©Gilbert M Mabasa: The Teacher 18 March 2006 17:50
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 21:15:29 +0000
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