Here’s a priceless quote I wanted to share with you that I picked up from a friend talking about the importance of not mentally lambasting a neighbor when we see a fault in them.
“If someone has an ugly caterpillar on their lapel, do we smash it onto them or lift it off?”
What a visual!
Have you ever seen “an ugly caterpillar” on your neighbor—or spouse, co-worker, or child?
Have you been tempted to “smash it on them?” Or do you prayerfully lift it off?
The “caterpillar” might be a bad attitude, an ugly disposition, a disagreeable temper, a scowl, or some other form of mortal mind unpleasantness.
Whatever the error is, you don’t have to “smash it on their lapel” by making it a reality in your mind. Lift if off by seeing the loved and perfect child of God instead.
You’ll both be better off. And a lot cleaner!
I would get a piece of paper or something to scrape it off–I certainly wouldn’t touch it!
I don’t see the caterpillar as ugly, but a divine idea of God – some of them are
really beautiful. But what they signify to me is the fact that they are not confined
to life as a caterpillar, but that they are transformed into beautiful butterflies when
they are ready. They can then rise above the earth and enjoy their freedom from
the limitations of being a caterpillar.
So we can see the promises for every individual child of God. What they seem to be manifesting
materially may be not pleasant on the surface,,but we can know that they are being transformed
mentally into their ultimate state of being as beautiful children of God. We can’t know from
looking at them, what is going on in their thoughts, but we can know that God is preparing them to inherit their true substance in His own image and likeness, and we can look for that true image in every one – all the wonderful qualities of God that He has given us to express. We have many
testimonies that demonstrate this in our periodicals.
We know that the caterpillar will become a lovely butterfly, and we can also know that every
single person is in the Father’s care, and He will cause them to discover their true selfhood and rise above the limited material senses to their true heritage and be free of material limitations. and find themselves to be as free from them as the butterfly
We can know that for ourselves as well -we can trust God and His Christ to transform our false beliefs into the spiritual understanding we need to set us free from material limitations of all kinds, and enable us to become the children of God we are created to be..
That was just beautiful. What an analogy. I don’t believe I will ever forget it. And I will strive every day to transform the thoughts of ugliness to the beauty of truth. Thank you.
Thanks a lot for sharing wonderful lines n interpreting spiritual view .
Thank you Maggie for seeking and seeing the wisdom of our Father Mother Creator and so sweetly and graciously gifting it to us. And thank you Evan for using such an earthy example to lift our thoughts up in order to see how God meets and heals every temptation we encounter.
Oh and let’s continue on with this visualization, to include the amazing transformation into a beautiful butterfly once that caterpillar stage has been completed. It is wonderful to watch all God’s creatures soar to new heights !
What a wonderful story, thank you for your thoughtful analogy of a caterpillar. I felt compelled to comment as your story set me thinking about how wonderful God, Divine Mind is in creating such an amazing insect that eventually through new birth becomes the most amazing and beautiful Butterfly (an early symbol of the Holy Spirit) and is the same as our new birth in Christ Jesus, we become a new creation as our Spirit is awakened and renewed in Him through His love and compassion. and we become beautiful in the eyes of Divine Mind. Nothing is impossible for God and no one is beyond redemption nor the Grace and Mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus.
My prayer is that we may always think of this analogy when faced with someone that causes harm or grief and remember that the Lord is able to do all things for His Glory and Majesty. No one is beyond redemption nor the Grace Mercy and Love of Almighty God our Heavenly Father
Thank you so much for your inspiration and help in my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
May the Lord continue to shower you with His Blessings of joy, peace, and love.
I like both analogies. The end result being the same, two beautiful butterflies! To see what God sees! Thank you for the insights!
Thank you Evan! This time it takes me a bit longer to understand that properly. (am German but love the English language).
Maggie, it is beautiful what you declared here. However as I understand CS is that man has been, is and will always be God’s perfect, wonderful child, loving and beautiful. Man must not change to become good and perfect. And so I also understand all spiritual creation of God! Caterpillars are pretty little animals.
Thanks so much for your wonderful and teaching SpiritView, dear Evan.
And it is a delight to read all the lively comments to it.
If you squashed the caterpillar it would make an awful mess…ie by giving the error relevance you give it life and power. But, by lifting it away , ie giving it no attention it becomes harmless in that situation. And with the right application of spiritual understanding , that thought of error attached to another will be negated and replaced with something loving. Our caterpillar becomes a beautiful butterfly. A good lesson to start most days as with lockdown we are continually in the same company and it is so easy to get irritated by others for no-thing important. Thank you Evan . Blessings to all.❣️
Evan, as always, you’ve opened up the opportunity to think more deeply and share lively conversations !
The caterpillar is such a perfect image; we know that eventually this “lowly” creature will transform into a thing of beauty and delight. We wouldn’t kill it before it could evolve; nor would ir should we stifle, constrict, or prevent anyone from their natural, spiritual growth. It is my work to see as we learn to see in Christian Science, as God our creator knows and sees us. Detach false views from another, knowing that this little caterpillar is beauty in disguise!
Agreed Annie, it is our work to see others, and ourselves, as God sees us and not beat ourselves up or mentally chastise others when “bad behavior” seems to appear. As Evan said, “Lift it off by seeing the loved and perfect child of God instead.” Not easy, but I can lean on God to help me along (not through human will) to see a higher view. We don’t have to be tricked into seeing a material, misbehaving mortal.
Hymn 144 says it well, “In atmosphere of Love divine, We live, and move, and breathe; Though mortal eyes may see it not, ‘Tis sense that would deceive.”
Thanks everyone for your continuing inspiration and love, and for showing up each day to connect with each other, I value you all so much!
Hi Rose, always love your comments. Also wanted to thank you for attaching the Daniel Jensen article yesterday. I had not read this one before, and it was amazing.
Thank you Rose! Well stated.
Love this analogy Evan…thank you and all for the shared insight.
Thank you very much Rose for your loving comment here and always!♡♡♡
Fine advice. Thank you one and all for this insight. It is easy to be judgmental while considering the often wayward thinking and action of others. A kind of distraction to take notice of an expression that we consider imperfect. Our stern obligation is to unsee error and not be impressed by what appears to be error.
Second verse of our dear leader, Mary Baker Eddy’s poem “Love” is found in Hymn #30-32 in the Christian Science Hymnal.
“If thou the bending reed wouldst break
By though or word unkind,
Pray that his spirit you partake ,
Who loved and healed mankind:
Seek holy thoughts and heavenly strain,
That make one in Love remain.”
I am very grateful for this mornings Spiritual way to remove erroneous imperfect ideas from humanity. Seeing only God’s creation in spite of errors exhibit. Thank you this is powerful stuff!
The first thing I thought of was one of my favorite quotes, “Just when the caterpillar thought it was the end of the world, it became a butterfly”. I love how this discussion evolved from transforming from an ugly caterpillar to something beautiful. It is like the truth becoming known, which will set us Free… to ascend to the heights of Mind, Soul into Love’s perfect expression. Beautiful thoughts shared here this morning. Thank you Evan and All for such inspiring thoughts.
Thank You Carol.
Very uplifting. Soaring today on wings of beautiful revelation,
Wow thank you all. Now after I read today’s SpiritView a third time and after I read all your comments I do understand the deeper spiritual meaning. Thank you all very much!♡
Here’s a poem I wrote recently. It’s trite but true.
“Even as it gives up hope,
Encasing itself to die,
The lowly caterpillar
Feels the truth it can’t defy
And wakes to find itself
A liberated butterfly.”
Nice poetry and a wonderful message.
Thanks for your poem Margaret. We can all “feel the Truth we can’t defy.” Nothing can keep us from knowing what we truly are in God, as He made us.
I like the joke about the caterpillar who saw a butterfly once and said, “You’ll never get me up in one of those.”
Ha ha, Linda! Good un!
Great analogy, Evan…all.
Love em, I do.
(Caterpillars, too!)
“Love reflected in love.”
I love this wonderful mental image reminder! Thank you, Evan!
Great visual which deepens the lesson ending with the lightness of a chuckle. Thanks Linda for your caterpillar joke. It adds joy in our becoming, in our unfolding.
I think this one was kind of a miss. Since when are caterpillars ugly? Who goes around smashing them? Or anything for that matter?
Caterpillars have a wonderful purpose in life. To me, they are an idea of God that shows us in their unfoldment that they are not confined in a lowly state but are destined to become a beautiful image of God’s creating. A little book that I love and share with others is ” Hope for the Flowers.” The author is Trina Paulus. On the cover is: “a tale –
partly about life
partly about revolution
and lots of hope
for adults and others
(including caterpillars who
can read)”
I have a Milkweed Butterfly plant in my patio garden and am just waiting to see if a beautiful Butterfly will come and lay her egg and then, maybe I can see a little caterpillar come and eat the leaves. Then, I could see its cocoon unfolding its colors into this beautiful, amazing gift of God!
One of my friends had this very experience, and I wish I could forward the photos that she shared with me on this example that we have that “progress is the law” of God” – we need not be bound in a state of confinement but are free to live life freely. I love this from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: “…conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.” (pg. 323:10) Thank you, Evan, for giving us this wonderful inspiration to guide us – and to all that leave their helpful ideas.
Always the right thing!
Ha! I love the simplicity of the analogy. Of course we don’t want to smash or rail on our brothers and sisters, how unhelpful to us all. We remove the false belief to see God’s idea, God expressed.
Hi Trista, thank you again for your remarks on yesterday’s Spiritview. Very meaningful to me and I wrote a comment back to you but it was later in the day so perhaps you did not see it. Much Love.
Aha! Wonderfully clear! ❤️
….a letter was received
May 28, 1996
“There is neither a slow nor a fast learner in Science. That which says it is a slow learner is no more true than the belief that there is a learner, or something to learn, in the first place.
“You do not live in any degree of mortal mind—not even the third. You live as Immortal Mind—the oneness of Mind, God, and His divine idea of Himself. In this Omnipresence, the clouds of mortal mind, or mesmerism, dissolve, and the true image is revealed. But you have nothing to do with this process, nor does this so-called process add to or take from a single bit of your present being. See S&H 150:32: “…the human mind and body are myths.”
“So there is not a not a human AND a divine. The human and divine coincidence is the disappearance of the human limited concept, so that all that remains is the divine. The “…coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea” (S&H 561:23-24) is all that really exists here and now.”
This is a very helpful post for me today Barbara. Thank you . I have made a note of the pages in S&H for further reading. I consider myself the constant learner and appreciate all the contributions here on S V. ❣️
The parable of the younger son in this weeks lesson seems to fit the image of the caterpillar to butterfly. Notice that the Father didn’t criticize or even have to forgive the son. The son had gone through the chrysalis state to become a true son of the Father. See S&H 297:21-31 The Father knew the son was His perfect reflection at all times. The son had to learn and progress.
Will keep this in mind before being critical of anyone. Of course, I can just hear a little kid say “oh, but caterpillars are cute!”. The idea of gently helping someone, gracefully handling a delicate situation is what counts here. A perfect approach. Thanks!
I wrote across my face mask :”In atmosphere of Love divine, we live and move and breathe”. I get some very nice comments. Roberta
Beautiful idea!
Had a similar lesson in Sunday School. I emptied the vacuum barrel into a plastic chinese takeaway container (shut tightly). I asked the kids what they would do if I poured the contents on them. They of course chuckled and laughed. I asked
Would they dust it off as soon as they can?
OR
Would they accept this yucky dust as a permanent fixture on them?
The response was a resounding SHAKE IT OFF.
Just like the caterpillar on the lapel, the dust (false beliefs/claims) want to settle on us. We don’t have to accept the caterpillar or the vacuum contents!