To be a human being can be humbling. For someone enduring a health trial, or the natural deterioration of the winter years of life, this is especially easy to see. But even the young and healthy have to sleep one third of our lives away. We have to eat; we make mistakes; we forget so much; we’re limited to this one planet; and, on top of that, we know that we will die.

So there are reasons to feel lowly and limited as human beings—but we don’t have to be discouraged about that. Regardless of the state of our physical bodies, we can be greatly inspired knowing that we will not remain this way!

We can be full of hope about the change that God has in store for us, and the awesome transformation we will undergo.

In His physical creation, God gives us many examples of life that starts off lowly and unimpressive, but ends up transformed into something majestic! Among the most dazzling is the monarch butterfly.

The Worm

When the Danaus plexippus, or monarch, species first comes into being, it is not just a smaller, scaled-down version of the adult. Instead, it starts out as a creature so drastically different from its final completed form that it is almost unrecognizable as the same species. It starts off as a worm—more specifically, a tiny wormlike caterpillar larva.

In Philippians 3:21, the Apostle Paul says that God is going to “change our vile [lowly] body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” There’s a tendency for people, especially the young and healthy, to exalt the human form. In the modern materialistic age, many even worship human beauty. But compared to eternal, spiritual beauty, our human existence really is on the worm level—lowly in comparison to God’s beauty.

Imagine a monarch caterpillar living out his days on the milkweed plant he was hatched on. The worm is essentially stuck. He can crawl around slowly, but his world is tiny. He strains to see what’s happening around him, craning his neck. He peers up at the trees and the sky. He would settle for a view of the entirety of the plant that he’s on, but he can’t really see anything. He is confined.

This is just like us in our human bodies. We are limited. We can strain to see the universe but can only gain the smallest of glimpses. Even harnessing the unparalleled technology of the Hubble Space Telescope, we can only scratch the surface of all that there is to see.

Conversion: Part 1

The worm’s occupation during this lowly, two-week phase is to become fat—very fat. Its one job during that part of its life is to grow, and grow, and grow!

In fact, for the whole of these two weeks, the caterpillar eats milkweed plant leaves almost nonstop. By the end of the fortnight, he will have increased his body weight, not by three times—not by 300 times—but by 3,000 times.

Before the caterpillar undergoes its drastic transformation and its rebirth as a butterfly, it must have this period of steady growth.

This is a beautiful analogy for the conversion process of a Christian. Before the momentous rebirth comes the steady daily growth, just as with the relentlessly nibbling caterpillar. In Matthew 5:48, Christians are told to become perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect. To do this, we have to be growing—adding to our spiritual weight, like these caterpillars.

Conversion: Part 2—The Metamorphosis

After two weeks of eating as much as possible, the larva has grown into a caterpillar around 2 inches long. He then attaches himself to a convenient twig, molts his outer skin and makes a shell of sorts around himself called a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, the creature enters a state of inactivity. There’s no eating. No growing. He sleeps deeply.

In 1 Corinthians 15:35-36, Paul writes, “But someone may ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?’ How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies” (New International Version).

Though the Bible states that all men die (Hebrews 9:27), it also often calls death sleep. In the big picture, a human being’s death is like a caterpillar going into its chrysalis into a state of inactivity or sleep.

But the Bible also tells us that men who have been converted will be raised up (Job 14:14; Jeremiah 30:9). This is like the creature that goes into the chrysalis. It comes out of that state of dormancy, and bursts back into action.

After 12 or so days, when the creature emerges, it looks nothing like the worm it once was. As a caterpillar, it was limited, unimpressive, and, in many ways, stuck.

But it emerges transformed into one of nature’s most beautiful and capable insects. It’s not confined! It doesn’t have to strain and crane its neck to see. It can gracefully fly. The creature is not only able to see the whole plant it was on, the monarch butterfly is actually on the very exclusive list of creatures capable of making transatlantic crossings. Occasionally, they even make it all the way to New Zealand or Australia.

As humans, awaiting our spiritual birth, we see only a miniscule part of the universe. We are limited by our physical bodies—battling fatigue when we pray, and sometimes struggling every month, week and day just to eke out a living.

But there is a time in the near future when we won’t be limited to one planet anymore! The monarch can make a transatlantic crossing; we will be able to make trans-universe crossings—at the speed of thought! Our world will be unimaginably expansive after we become born sons of God.

About the metamorphosis we will undergo, the Apostle Paul wrote: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. … As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 48-49).

What a dramatic transition!

The material creation of man is only our first phase—the caterpillar phase. Now the worm has to eat, and grow, and some will still have to go into the chrysalis for a little while. But with our cooperation, and the aid of God’s Holy Spirit, we will undergo an amazing metamorphosis into the finished spiritual masterpiece—the majestic butterfly—the spirit being.

This analogy breaks down at a certain point, because, when the butterfly emerges, it lives for only a few weeks. But we will live in our transformed state forever! We’ll be immortal, pure spiritual members in the divine Family of God.

Let’s keep on growing, and not get discouraged about the sufferings of this present time that come with living in our limited human bodies. Paul wrote that they are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. It’s so exciting, encouraging and inspiring to know that we will undergo a spiritual metamorphosis far greater than the change of the monarch butterfly.