but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind.
Romans 12:2
• Five Minute Friday :: Transform LInkup
This week I get to include one of my all time favorite scripture illustrations and talk about Romans again.
World here is "age," eon, era, epoch, and not cosmos.
What can we say, think, or do about the way the world and its leaders, the USA and its leaders, and so much about and around us seems to be changing, not transforming into vibrant new life from death, but from health to despair to death itself?
"Transformed" in this passage from Romans is metamorphosis. Our most familiar images in creation may be butterflies and dragonflies; I did a little research to confirm what I thought I already knew.
Butterflies symbolize transformation and rebirth. In the Christian tradition, butterflies are an icon of easter and resurrection.
Dragonflies originate in water and migrate to air as they grow and mature. Throughout their lifespan, dragonflies are at home in both water and air. In addition to change and transformation that's similar to butterfly lore, dragonflies are about adaptability. Maybe you know they can change direction amidst flight, and they can fly backwards? Somewhere I read dragonflies are about the realization of dreams.
The world and its leaders, the USA and its leaders, and too much about and around us is changing, not into life from death, but from health to despair to death. Maybe your neighborhood, your family, or your workplace has troubles that appear beyond hope. Maybe your own situation has imploded and you need to start from scratch?
Like a dragonfly we are birthed and re-birthed in water; we need to keep returning to the water for sustenance and renewal; we need to keep walking the talk still "wet behind the ears" with God's baptismal promises and claims on us, with God's baptismal charge to us to live transformed, to be agents of change and transformation to help create a world filled with justice, righteousness, newness, possibilities, and hope.
Via the apostle Paul, God calls us to "be transformed," to undergo a metamorphosis, but no human can achieve that radical change on their own, by themselves. It's the work of the Holy Spirit. It's about death and resurrection. Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Wherever we are, in whatever place we live, transformed people can be agents of change and transformation for this age, this epoch, this eon. Reborn into the cross and the empty tomb. Transformed by water and word. Amen? Amen!
• Common milkweed in full flower this year in West Los Angeles
• Monarch Butterfly from West Los Angeles in a previous year (2018) with depleted milkweed plant. We've been planting milkweed at church for more than a half dozen years. What a ministry to creation!
• Dragonfly from hippo px
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I'm not sure how relevant this is, but recent events have had me thinking along these lines, and of words from an old Spiritual...no more water, the fire next time.
ReplyDelete***
In the mountains of the West
and in the heat-hazed hills of Oz
grow trees that need disaster's test
to thrive according to God's laws
of rebirth through the roaring flame
that melts resin which holds the seed,
and it goes thus whence it came,
ash to ash, to serve its need
and grow again, a generation
that has been reborn in fire,
a metaphor for every nation
aging badly, soon to tire
of the yoke of blind tradition
turning it from youthful vision.
And please, may I add a PS... I'm apolitical, and don't pretend to have answers, or even to understand the questions. It just seems that things are growing hotter, and having lived in the shadow of the eucalyptus, I have to find a ray of hope.
DeleteHere's a song that can help us keep the faith-"He's got the whole world in His hands."
ReplyDeleteI love your pictures and reflections. Hard times draw us closer to Jesus, the living water (John 7:38). He transforms our sorrows to joy. How He does this is as mysterious as the caterpillar changing to a butterfly. Jesus is our source of hope.
ReplyDeleteLove your spiritual lesson from nature on metamorphosis. That monarch butterfly reminds me of stained glass windows. So beautiful. Thank you for bringing more depth to a familiar verse.
ReplyDeleteYour FMF neighbour #10