Slowly Moving Along!
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
For the past few months, I’ve been pondering a new favorite quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a 19th Century French Jesuit priest, scientist, paleontologist, philosopher, and teacher who said, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God.” I hope you’ll read more …
I once read that the most commonly asked question in the Bible is, “How long?” Perhaps like you, I sure do relate!
While thinking about God’s s-l-o-w work, I considered turtles and told my husband I wanted to look for a yard art turtle we could use as a visual reminder to trust God’s work. After checking several garden stores, I searched on Amazon and found one that captured my imagination. The metal turtle balancing a butterfly on its nose made me smile and seemed perfect for our entryway bed.
The transformative journey of the butterfly is an appropriate metaphor for God’s slow work. First, a tiny egg is laid. Next, the egg hatches, and a rather clumsy caterpillar emerges. The caterpillar eats voraciously, grows like crazy, and sheds its skin several times before becoming a chrysalis. During the chrysalis stage, dramatic transformation is occurring, but the chrysalis is inactive and doesn’t even eat. Then, suddenly one of God’s most magnificent creations—the butterfly—emerges.
A minister who visited our church many years ago said something I still remember: “God never acts quickly, but God always acts suddenly.”
God’s work seems most often to be very slow, and oftentimes, it feels like nothing is happening. But I am convinced that during the process of waiting, a transformational process occurs within the soul.
First, a seed of longing is laid before God. We begin to grow and learn. We devour every morsel of spiritual food we can find. Sometimes, we move around awkwardly, but bit by bit, layers of insecurity, doubt, and old ways of thinking and living are shed. Then, we enter a season of resting and trusting in the inside-out work that can only be accomplished by God’s Spirit. With growing trust in God, we are in the process of becoming. Then, one day, we emerge as a beautiful representative of God’s grace, accomplishing the good work for which we were created.
Metaphors always break down, and the process of becoming a butterfly is, of course, much simpler than that of becoming a mature, fully devoted follower of Jesus. But if you, like me, sometimes become impatient with the process of spiritual transformation, I hope this simple illustration will encourage you to keep moving forward, one small, slow step at a time.
Blessings on your journey!
(AKA GgMa)