“In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” -Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
I’m endeavoring to be like a butterfly! I know what you might be thinking: who doesn’t want to be like a butterfly and transform to become the beautiful person that you were meant to be, blah blah blah. While I really like the butterfly analogy and think that in many situations it is very apt…the stereotypical change-into-a-butterfly analogy is actually not what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about wanting to be like a very specific butterfly…the Menelaus Blue Morpho butterfly, to be exact. Any why would I want to be like an insect, you might ask? While I’m not a fan of anything bug-like and the truth is I’d probably run for my life if I saw a big butterfly with an 8” wingspan coming at me, I DO admire one major characteristic of this particular type of butterfly: their structural color.
Beyond just an impressive wing-span, Blue Morpho Butterfly’s wings also have this amazing, vibrant metallic blue color. More amazing is that their wings do not contain any blue pigment. Then how is that even possible? Their brilliant blue color is achieved by something called structural color.
Structural color is a way of producing color by taking advantage of the physics of light. In the case of the Blue Morpho, any light that hits it reflects off the microscopic scales/ridges that cover the wings, creating the vivid blue that appears iridescent and shimmering. It gets cooler: the ridges on their wings amplify the blue light while canceling out all the other colors, thus reflecting a beautiful, brilliant blue!* How’s that for an impromptu Lepidopterology Science lesson?!
Put simply, one big part of this butterflies’ beauty is in reflecting light. And that reminds me of our job as Christians. We have the opportunity to reflect Christ in our everyday lives. It is not only our job, but also our privilege to share about the freedom that Christ purchased for us by dying so that we might live.
We are not the light as John said in his gospel, nor do we have light in and of ourselves, we can only reflect The Light, namely Jesus Christ (John 1:6-8). As great as I think I am on any given day…even at my personal best, I can’t even come close to the goodness of our God. But we can and should reflect Him and His goodness on a daily basis.
So ask yourself, Who or What are you reflecting today? I want to be about reflecting God and His goodness.
God and His creation is SO amazing. If we really open our eyes to it, we only have to look around us to see His creation in nature. And Structural color…wow, what will He think of next?
Scripture references:
-John 1:6-8
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
*https://scientificinquirer.com/2024/03/12/the-big-picture-the-blue-morpho-butterfly-morpho-peleides-spreads-its-
wings/.
#ReflectGod #GodsCreation #Butterfly
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