THE RED HORNED GREEN MONSTER
It was a beautiful sunny day and I was out in the garden pulling up weeds. I saw this very interesting creature on one of my tomato vines. It was a lime green large caterpillar of sorts, with a red horn at one end of it. It was some what leathery looking with white strips and little black dots. I had never seen anything quite like it. I left it basking in the sun on my tomato vine thinking this would be cool to see it transform into a beautiful butterfly. I went about my business of pulling weeds in the garden.
The next day I was out in the garden and I noticed my tomato plant. It reminded me of Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree. I quickly began to inspect it for bugs but all I could find was the beautiful leathery caterpillar. After a little research on-line I found this little critter is very damaging to tomato plants. So much for raising a beautiful butterfly; it went straight to the chicken pen.
After it oozed out this purplish inky goop from where the horn was, a couple of chickens fought over it, pulled it in half and munched it down. I assume the ink stuff was some sort of defense mechanism and I was a little concerned for the chickens that ate it hoping they weren’t poisoned. They wiped their beaks off in the dirt and went about their normal scratching and pecking business.
We are similar to the caterpillar in a sense because we have the capability to destroy everything that comes in our path. “Hell and Destruction are before the Lord, so how much more the hearts of sons of men.” {Proverbs 15:11} Wicked people plot deception in which the innocent are captured and victimized. From what I gather, the caterpillar eats everything in its path until it cannot eat anymore and then it burrows into the soil and remains under ground through the winter going through a metamorphosis. In the spring it emerges as a moth. It transforms into something not as destructive as it once was.
The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling He looks on the inhabitants of the earth, He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works {Psalm 33:13-15}. God created every single creature for a purpose. The red horned green monster destroyed several of my tomato plants throughout the summer. There were more than one of these little creatures and every one I caught I fed to the chickens. These caterpillars reminded me that once God gets a hold of our hearts the renewal of our mind is transformed into a new creation {Romans 12:2 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 respectively}. Okay, so the ones that I caught transformed into chicken feed, but you do get the idea, yes?
We may not like all of the creatures that He created and we may question for what purpose it was created. We may even feel this way about people sometimes. As I reflect on the green leathery caterpillar with the red horn, I am reminded how I thought it was pretty at first. But then I saw how destructive it became. Once it turned into a not so pretty moth, it wasn’t as destructive any more. We should remember that people can sometimes be the same way. I was — sometimes I still am. They may be really pretty on the outside but inside they are full of destruction. Everyone is born that way; it is inherited by nature. Of course you cannot scoop them up and feed them to the chickens, but you can pray for them and be patient with them and show them the love that Christ showed you.
Once God gets a hold of their heart the metomorphosis will begin.
© Crackerberries 2011
