Pro 31 WC

Cocoon

Seasons change, people change-isn’t that a song and a cliche.   The truth of the matter is that for most of us, we don’t like change.  As a wellness professional, one of my goals is to encourage clients to welcome change.  It is an important part of maintaining health and wellness.  It is important to life as well. SPOILER ALERT. Change isn’t fun. It is difficult.  Since it can be challenging, we don’t welcome it.  We resist it, when the real lesson is to embrace it.  Free will. Humans.

Animals on the other hand, instinctively welcome change.  Many animals go through a process of transformation that is critical to survival and growth. Interesting. Without change, without transformation growth is aborted.  ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.  For animals the “cocoon” becomes the vehicle that precipitates their transformation.  SPOILER ALERT. Cocoons aren’t very aesthetic. Chances are it is going to look ugly. Nevertheless, animals instinctively surrender to this process. It is embraced and welcomed.

We are not like animals. Bet you saw that coming. We are mammals but we don’t act on instinct for survival. We have a free will. We have a choice.  We must learn to surrender to the process of change when our season presents itself.  We must choose to yield to transformation.  Embrace our own “cocoon” season if we truly want growth and transformation.  Surrender to the process. Yield.  We lay down our will.  Sounds easy. SPOILER ALERT. It’s not.  It requires some spiritual ingredients. HOPE. FAITH. TRUST.

Here is the lesson we learn from our animal friends: creatures trust the Creator.

King David in Psalms 139 gives us creatures some insight.

Verse 16 of The Message Bible reads

“Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;

            all the stages of my life were spread out before you,

            The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

Our Creator knew us from the beginning. Plans were made, but ultimately the choices are OURS. FREE WILL.

Verse 7 says

“Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight?”…

Verses 11 & 12

“Then I said to myself, “Oh he even sees me in the dark! (in my cocoon, my translation). At night I’m immersed in the light!

It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you: night and day darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.”

The cocoon is dark.

CHOOSE HOPE. CHOOSE FAITH. CHOOSE TRUST.

Some of us will have darker cocoon seasons.

Lamentations 3:6

“He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.”

A coffin sounds like a cocoon to me.  Jeremiah, a prophet of God, wrote the book of Lamentations. (The title speaks volumes).  He is known as the weeping prophet.  Here he says God put him in deep darkness.  Just like our animals friends experience cocoon or pupa stage as part of their natural development and transformation; so it is with us.  WHY?  Speaking from experience, we learn HOPE, FAITH & TRUST.  In my cocoon I learned hope, faith & trust.

Jeremiah also said this,

“I’ll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes,

the poison I’ve swallowed.

            I remember it all-oh, how well I remember- the feeling of hitting the bottom.

            But there’s one thing I remember, and remembering I keep a grip on HOPE.

God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out, his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.  They’re created new every morning. How great is your faithfulness!

Lamentations 3: 19-22

In the cocoon the creature dies in order to be reborn all by the hand of the Creator. Don’t be a victim of arrested development. Don’t resist the cocoon season.  Let’s learn from our animal friends who have gone through this process of transformation over and over again.  We can choose to have hope in the Creator’s love for his creation.  We can choose to have faith even when everything looks like darkness, knowing that even then we are not alone.   We can trust that the One who formed us ONCE can do it AGAIN if we will embrace the cocoon. Welcome the transformation.  SPOILER ALERT. Be reborn.

Choose HOPE. Choose FAITH. Choose TRUST.