Stephen and I keep referring back to the butterfly wings. There was something lovely about giving them to the girls and seeing their faces, but there was something even better about the following days.
It was the profound juxtaposition. The beautiful tanaka-covered faces with sparkling wings running around between trash cans and over broken bottles. They flutter by the adults with tired faces and drooping shoulders. The kids beam.
It presents the message of Romans 8:18-25 to me.
“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
The bondage of corruption seems so evident: the groaning, the waiting. And yet the hope is tangible. The hope of a child, the eagerness.
It’s a really beautiful juxtaposition that sometimes needs to be replayed.
Beautiful