Grab a cup of coffee or a glass of sweet tea with a piece of your favorite cake and visit with me for a few minutes. I welcome the privilege to come into your home each month and share how God is using your prayerful support to change the lives of those we have been called to care for each day. I love sharing with you the metamorphosis taking place in the lives of those we serve.
Now, imagine a beautiful butterfly visiting us in this moment.
Butterflies are absolutely beautiful, exquisite creatures and I could sit for hours by a butterfly bush watching them light ever so quietly on the flowers and leaves. I celebrate their beauty and their uniqueness—each one different, each one special. As I watch the butterflies, I am reminded that each one did not start out as this beautiful creature. These beautiful butterflies were once caterpillars, which then changed into a pupa or a cocoon, and then into a butterfly. These beautiful creatures have gone through
a complete metamorphosis.
The butterfly has experienced transformation. Through its stages of transformation, it had to struggle just to survive. Maya Angelou said it this way, “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Our children come to us from very difficult situations. They have struggled so hard just to survive. Like the butterfly, they have found ways to build a cocoon around them, afraid to let. anyone in for fear that the world around them. will engulf them in the trauma that threatens to. destroy them. Like the butterfly, they hide from the elements that will cause them harm. They are faced with the option of flight or fight. Faced with these two options, they create a shield of protection around them—their cocoon to shield them from the wounds and pain within their young lives.
When the children come into care, they hold onto their cocoons at first until they begin to shed some of their fear, their loneliness, their pain, their distrust. As they experience unconditional love, they begin the shedding of their cocoon. As they are introduced to the transforming love of Jesus Christ, their cocoon falls away. They become new creatures. Like the butterfly, they become absolutely beautiful exquisite creatures. Like the butterfly, each one is different and each one is special.
What if the caterpillar did not change, did not develop the cocoon, did not become a butterfly? What if it had been left as a caterpillar
to dry up and die? What if our children were left to defend themselves? What if they were not provided the cocoon of Baptist Children’s Homes to love and protect them and help them to transform into all God intended them to be? What if you and others like you had not given over the years to make this ministry possible? What if?
I shudder to think about the “what ifs”—the children who. would not have accepted Christ into their hearts and the children. who would not have grown into successful adults making a difference in their families and their communities. There are many more children to come—babies to save—that will need the opportunity to develop into the beautiful children God intends—each one different and each one special.
Will you change their what if no one cared into I am loved?
Will you pray about how God can use you to change their
what-ifs?
Pray for four siblings that came into our care that lost both of their parents to a double overdose.
Pray for a teenager in our teen mom/baby cottage waiting for the birth of her baby.
Pray for one of our teenage girls dealing with the trauma of being neglected as a baby.
Pray for our four-year-old boy in Guatemala who weighs less than 20 pounds. He has medical needs due to the trauma and malnutrition he experienced prior to coming into our care.
Pray for 14-year-old Tirrell who experienced significant trauma and neglect—who will soon be adopted into his forever home.
Pray for the two children who were abandoned by their family. They were left at a store and slept outside all night.
Pray for the metamorphosis/transformation taking place in their lives and the beautiful butterflies they will become.
You can see a complete prayer guide here.
For more information on how you can help transformation take place in the lives of children who so desperately need you, call me at 336-689-4442 or email bbgray@bchfamily.org
Written by Brenda Gray, Executive Vice President, Development & Communications