A New Creation

Photo credit: Free-images.com

They say that change is constant. 

A caterpillar being transformed into a butterfly is the epitome of change. It’s good to keep in mind, though, that this change doesn’t come easily and it doesn’t happen overnight. The caterpillar eats voraciously, and nearly continuously, to grow strong. After she builds her chrysalis and is transformed into a butterfly inside it, she has to work to emerge from it. Her struggle to break through the hard shell is necessary for her to develop strong, healthy wings. Some people have tried to ‘help’ butterflies emerge, but this actually harms them: The caterpillar’s and butterfly’s respective work is what lets her reach her ultimate goal. In all stages of the butterfly’s development, there’s no stagnation. There’s constant work and constant change. 

The same is true for us in our spiritual life. We’ll become stronger in our faith when we resist stagnation – when we work at our spiritual growth and ask God to work with us. We’ll grow stronger in our faith by learning, through prayer and experience, how God wants us to express that faith. We’ll discover how we can show our love for God and for our neighbor with our personalities and talents and all the other resources He’s given us. What God asks of us may very well change with the seasons of our life. As we mature and as our faith grows stronger, we’ll learn to follow God’s promptings and change as He guides us to. And over time, we’ll be transformed – we’ll live with and for Christ more and more. We’ll become kinder, wiser, more patient, more generous, more compassionate, more charitable, more forgiving, more loving, and more prayerful. We’ll become more and more focused on God and less on ourselves. We’ll become more like Him.

To let our Lord accomplish all of this in us, we have to be open to change; we have to allow ourselves to be changed by the One Who created us. To become more like God, we have to become a new creation – we have to become the people He created us to be.

This doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without effort on our part. So, let’s ask our Lord for the grace to open our hearts to Him, and to help us see how He wants us to change. Let’s ask Him to help us identify and abandon our old, stagnant ways. Let’s ask Him to draw us closer to Himself and to help us take advantage of opportunities to spend more time with Him during our day. Let’s ask Him to show us how we might find new ways to show His love to the people in our family and in our community. 

Let’s ask God for the courage to let Him transform us into the people He created us to be.

“So whoever is in Christ is a new creation...” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Let everything I do be with You, for You, and because of You.

Thank you for reading my reflection.  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words!    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

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P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the people around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Free as a Goldfinch

Purple thistles, various yellow wildflowers, and brown burrs flanked the trail my husband and I hiked last Saturday. As we walked and admired the late summer colors, a patch of black, yellow, and white caught my eye. I stopped to look more closely and realized it was a goldfinch! She didn’t move except for her head: She was stuck on a branch! 

I slowly stepped toward her and then hesitated. Should I touch her? I looked closer and saw that both feet and one wing were stuck on the burrs. I had to try to help her. Talking to her in a soothing voice, I carefully held her wing between my thumb and forefinger and gently pulled the burr away from it…and it came free! She didn’t move – she was probably terrified! Her legs were so tiny; I held first her left foot and then the right while gently pulling burrs off of them, all the while talking to her. 

I cradled her silky-soft body in my cupped hands for just a few seconds before she realized she was free. In a flash she flapped her wings and flew off erratically, anxious to get away. I watched her with an indescribable feeling of joy as she flew faster and higher, way up above us, eager to get back to her family and friends. I imagined she had quite a story to tell!

Sometimes we, too, get stuck, though not physically. We get stuck in our selfish or sinful ways. We have weaknesses we fall prey to. Regret and remorse may stick in our minds and hearts and keep us spiritually paralyzed, kind of like the goldfinch was stuck and couldn’t fly. 

That little bird needed someone to free her from the burrs. Christ is the Someone Who has the power to free us from our sins and burdens of guilt.

Christ’s love and mercy are stronger than the voice of shame that Satan whispers in your ear. Go to Christ and pour out your heart to Him. Admit that you are stuck in ways that aren't His loving ways. Ask Him for His mercy and forgiveness. Acknowledge that you need His power to set you free from these sins. Let His power and grace make you “a new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Let Him give you the courage to fly away from the traps you keep getting stuck in. The Sacrament of Reconciliation was given to us exactly for this purpose.

Remember: You are loved, you are forgiven, and you are free to live again in the joy of His loving embrace. 

“For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting.” - Psalm 100:5

 

“Lord, I need You to set me free!”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2023 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

You can also find my posts on Facebook!

P.S.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/...

P.P.S. If you’re able to help the people of Maui, here are a few organizations that are accepting donations:

The Hawaii Community Foundation 

The American Red Cross

The Maui Food Bank