The pulpy in-between

There’s a place of in-between when a caterpillar resting in its cocoon is not quite a caterpillar anymore. It's still not quite a butterfly either, but something in the middle. The caterpillar gives up its wandering, and finally rests in a cocoon.

Life in the cocoon is a pulpy, vulnerable place. The structures that got that caterpillar around in life are broken down to the cellular level; liquefied. Legs might eventually be reformed into wings, the chewing mouth might become a drinking straw, and so on for the whole body. It’s a process of destruction and re-creation. It’s a messy, inconvenient, and seemingly inefficient middle place.

God’s transformative work can feel like a tearing down of our essential structures. We can’t live the way we’ve lived for our whole lives when God changes us into a new creation. We’re no longer caterpillars, squirming around on our own strength, tearing out our own food. God has seen fit to change us.

Through Jesus' suffering on the cross on our behalf, we’re new creations, constantly being reformed into the image and likeness of Christ. In Psalm 138:8 David mixes a proclamation of God’s faithfulness with a prayer for God to be faithful. He writes “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.”

Whether you’re currently praising God for his faithfulness, or petitioning God to remain faithful, spend time talking with God today about the pulpy, in-between places of your life.


Psalm 138