Making Connections

Each and every person’s path in life is different. There may be similarities, enough to give us insight, but no two paths are identical. Some people are like the hare in our story, breezing through life with hardly a care, others are more like Cassandra and Francis, facing challenges and the unknown, always going through some sort of transformation.

In facing the challenges of life we try to find reasons, but often there is nothing that really satisfies. We know that there are forces at work in nature that affect our lives, things like hurricanes, earthquakes, and even icy roads. Sometimes other creatures or people shape the direction our paths take—a dog bite, a careless driver, or faulty equipment. There are also natural processes within our bodies that change the direction our paths take; things like genes, environmental pollutants, germs and viruses. Some of these things we can control, others are beyond us—at least for now.

There are times when we might wonder if the fates have conspired against us, perhaps even if God has abandoned us. Jesus’ message in all this is that when a grain falls and is buried, something new comes of it. Whatever we face in life, we can grow from the experience, because God never abandons us, but encourages us to look at the path through hopeful eyes. We may need to leave some things behind, but we also know that with God’s help we will overcome. In some ways we all have the capacity to transform our lives, in a sense, to become butterflies.
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