Since a few weeks ago, when I wrote about a butterfly I received in church (you can click here and see bottom of this older post if you don't know what I mean), I've been thinking a lot about butterflies and the amazing process of metamorphosis. Really, it's quite miraculous and yet still mysterious, I think! Maybe Jesus went through a process like that? I wasn't there, so who am I to say if he did or didn't?!
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/
I have my butterflies posted on my fridge now as a daily reminder to myself and perhaps my children - to be grateful and remember there are many mysterious and wonderful things in this crazy world.
I've also been thinking a fair bit about how there are many things in this world that I don't understand.. many wonderful things still to learn!
As I've continued to reflect on faith, I think it's an interesting coincidence that, all week long, I've had the song "From a Distance" by Bette Midler stuck in my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN4AcFzxtdE
I really love this song. It seems to speak to how I feel deep inside... Today, I decided that since I seem to love this song so much I should check out more of her music, so I went to iTunes and purchased her "greatest hits" album. What showed up? To my surprise and joy, there is a butterfly on the cover of her album!
Earlier this week, I was feeling quite exhausted during an evening. I was stressed about work, and decided I needed a distraction. Lately, when I get this way, I find myself letting Netflix suggest movies to me, based on some I've watched and enjoyed in past. No, I haven't been watching movies about butterflies.. just a lot of Christian movies! This time, the movie that showed up was called "Miracles from Heaven"... If you're looking for a "feel good" movie that will likely cause you to break out a box of tissues, this is a must see... This movie is such a wonderful true story about faith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracles_from_Heaven_(film). I think equally interesting to me though was, guess what?... Butterflies appear in this movie as well!
Now, this got me thinking about other symbols related to faith... I have this beautiful picture that a minister friend gave to our family when our daughter Morgan was born, depicting Noah's ark (previously included in post, but tried to remove with thoughts I might be violating some copyright law). In last weekend's reflection in church, we were reminded about the story of Noah from the Bible, and this led me to remember this picture that still hangs on our daughter's wall. As I said, I still have much to learn, or probably more accurately re-learn - my memory seems to be terrible these days!... I was reminded about Genesis 9, where God speaks after presenting a rainbow to Noah. The story says that God presented Noah with a covenant agreement - that He would never again flood the Earth to destroy all living things, and as a symbol of this agreement He presented a rainbow in the sky. Many have reflected that the bow is a symbol of old-time warfare, and so when you see a rainbow in the sky you should think of it as a symbol of people hanging up their bows on a wall. I think it's a beautiful thought, much like butterflies!
I also love frogs! They also go through some pretty cool changes, eh? Recall this post from last year? https://www.facebook.com/christine.mackenzie.902/videos/pcb.10154339978040763/10154339976900763/?type=3&theater Soon, this sound of peepers will be here again, too, and I love that!
Now, I mentioned in my last post that recently my daughter sang "Ring of Keys" in the local music festival. What I didn't share was her reason for doing this, as I wasn't sure how she'd feel about that. She has told me she's okay with me talking about it though, so here it is...
Recently, I find my daughter seeing rainbows often, and exclaiming... "Look, Mom! My people are here!" I have learned so much from my daughter! You see, my daughter has decided that she doesn't care what a person's sexual orientation is. In fact, she embraces the idea that we're all different, all "original", all unique in our own way. She now uses a label to describe herself and others that I think is really quite beautiful... and I didn't even know it existed until she informed me. She describes herself as "pansexual". I confess I had no clue what this word meant when she told me, but now I reflect that I think it's a beautiful way for a person to describe herself! In case you're like I was, and have no idea what it means... try a simple Google search, and perhaps you will also have your eyes opened to a new way of thinking... a new "rainbow" symbol, too :-)
I titled this "My Coming Out Story" though... not my daughter's. I'm saying she chooses not to identify herself as sexually oriented one way or the other, as "people are people".. period. I've learned that "Ring of Keys" is often a song used by people to "come out", as you can see in this video that I've found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_UORDF_gQk. I really enjoyed watching this, and so I'm sharing.
So what am I "coming out" about here?
If you made it this far, you likely know that I love to read, and also I am a bit obsessed about learning about why people have faith, seeking to strengthen my own feelings of faith, which generally I think is a transformation I've been going through... I do think there is a "higher power" at work in this world.. There is something quite mysterious and wonderful still about this world that I cannot explain, and so I choose to have faith... it's "possible" that a man could have resurrected... I think it could have happened once, as a "miracle" if you wish to think of it that way, much like sometimes people "miraculously" are cured of a terrible disease and people around them simply cannot explain it. I prefer to believe that! I'm not feeling ready to say with 100% faith that it happened, but I am at least willing to say there is possibility there.
With this in mind, I recently read a book called... "One World, Many Religions", by Mary Pope Osborne. I have often wondered to myself, what do people who practice other than Christian faith think? So, I read this book, cover to cover within about an hour! I thoroughly enjoyed this read, as it drove home some thoughts I've had for quite a while now... I truly don't understand why it is that people feel that other people must subscribe to one and only one religion. In reading this book, I learned of the natural progression that many religions of this world seem to have gone through and common roots many seem to have been born from. There are so many different faiths, but at the heart of many is a common beginning. Interesting to me was to read that Muslims trace their ancestry back to Abraham, just as Jews and Christians do. About 600 years after Jesus, a man named Muhammad came along and spoke of one God who spoke to him as well, and his followers wrote down his messages in the Koran, which includes many stories that appear in Christian and Jewish scriptures as well. So, I still don't understand really, why must some feel the need to fight over it all? Can't we be followers of multiple positive leaders from our past? Choose to follow BOTH Jesus and Muhammad, as examples?
This Sunday, I will be "coming out" as a Christian.. re-affirming my faith in a more public way in our church by becoming an official member. By doing this, I'm saying that I'm proud to be a follower of Jesus - a great man who taught people we should ALL love EVERYONE. Maybe, in his own way, he was saying we should all be "pansexual"... There is no need for us to subscribe to just one sexual orientation, or even just one faith! This Sunday, I feel I could just as easily "come out" as a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, or perhaps label myself in many other ways I've not even learned about yet!
I think it might be simpler though... We could all quite simply just label each other as "people" and choose to love each other and learn from the good, kind people in our common history. Isn't that the simple answer to world peace?
The more important reason that I want to become a member of our church is that I am proud to be associated with this group of loving people in my community. It brings me great joy to see them each Sunday, and share the experience of hearing stories of good things from history and do good with them now, so I want to officially say so to them - and a way to do that is to become an official member of the church family.
As you know I love lyrics, I'll close with this... I am reminded of a song I've heard quite a number of times in our church: http://www.circle-m.ca/crcn/newsletter_pdfs/family_hymn.pdf. The father of a member of our church wrote this song. Isn't that wonderful?
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