“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” Deuteronomy 30:19

“We need more milkweed!” Katie said. The new school year is well underway, and with it comes the process of teaching her young students how ‘Life’ works! God’s Caterpillars to Butterflies is just too big of a ‘show and tell’ to pass up. We bought milkweed, set it out, Monarchs laid eggs, eggs became Caterpillars and… DINED!

The process of nature does not come with scheduled maintenance, supervision or checks and balances. Placing the milkweed plant into a mesh enclosure insures protection from enemies that might harm them. Adding a few extra caterpillars from other plants could only make the ‘show and tell’ more spectacular… right?

Caterpillars are not smart. After decimating one milkweed plant, simply placing another in the same container does NOT mean they will automatically move to it. Once all the leaves of the plant they are on are eaten, there HAS to be a strong drive, stimulus or manual transfer to move them to the new ‘life giving’ plant.

Note the subject of this writing is about Butterflies and NOT milkweed plants! If milkweed was the subject, I could say… “Oh… look at that poor milkweed plant! Those nasty Caterpillars MURDERED it!” And they did! But in noting the process, I took particular interest in the fact that 1 thing lives… only because 1 thing dies!

Seeing the plant decimated, I went out into the yard and grabbed a passion vine plant and placed it in the cage. When Katie got home she told me “Monarchs don’t eat passion leaves… Gulf Fritillary Caterpillars eat those!” So we went to the plant store! After a couple manual transfers, all but 1 caterpillar made it!

I found today’s verse by Googling ‘life and death Bible verses’ and noted that, at NO time, does God automatically transfer ANY human from life to death. Rather, all humans are given the CHOICE to transfer… or not. He POINTS in the direction of His Life Giving Son and ENCOURAGES us to ‘MOVE!’ Our CHOICE affects our kids!

I’d say man’s life on Earth has increasingly decimated it from it’s original form. But God promises that once all the decisions have been made, and all of us ‘caterpillar people’ have either ‘chosen life or death,’ He will make this Earth all new again! So… what are YOU munching on in this world and will it bring you Death? Or Life?  Choose Life!