I close my eyes
Everything disappears with Your smile
I raise my hands
On a cliff I stand
Arms open wide
You’re the Father, I’m the child
You whisper to me
“Step off the edge–
Leave it all behind
Leave it all behind
Cut loose, cut loose this life…
Let go, let go…
Way too long
I’ve settled for these lies
When so much more
has been waiting on the other side.
I think it’s time
we crossed this river so wide
Leave these shores, step off the edge
Leave it all behind.
Cut loose, cut loose and fly
Let go and fly
Fly! You can fly!
Leave the ground, leave the ground!
GO AND FLY!
This is what you  were meant to do…fly.
It’s just me and You
It’s just me and You, Papa
It’s just me and You in this place,
It’s just me and You
Your face
I can’t hear any other voices
but Yours, but Yours…
It’s just me and You, God.
I’ll never leave again.
I’m becoming the dream,
the dream of God…

I was listening to this beautiful worship song called, “Fly” by Jonathan David Helser yesterday and the words really captured my heart. It had been awhile since I had heard it, but the meaning became brand new. Suddenly, it dawned on me that if I am the same as I was yesterday, something is wrong-not with God, but me! If I am not growing in Him daily, if I am not looking more like my Savior today than I did yesterday, if I am not more full of His life and love and truth, if my perspective isn’t more eternal then I MUST go to into my prayer closet and repent. I must ask Him to remove all the layers of things that hinder my growth, things like apathy, weariness, complacency, and busyness, just to name a few. Yes, we all have moments that we struggle and even fall, but we must never stay there. We must quickly grab onto the spiritual lifelines HE has given us- His Word, His Holy Spirit, His presence that shows up when we humble ourselves before Him. I don’t want to be the same today as I was yesterday. I don’t want to look at things the same tomorrow as I havetoday. Each day, I want to think, act, look, talk more like Jesus and focus my renewed mind on the things I cannot see- the eternal. When this process takes place, GREAT JOY wells up inside us, because it is what we were created to do! To be the clay in His hands, to be totally abandoned, to seek Him with ALL our hearts, to live in His presence and long to be more like Jesus, to “fly”! Can you hear your Father asking you to leave all the earthly hinderances behind and dive into the ocean of Him? To seek after Him, to know Him in His fullness and to be molded and sculpted to look like Him? Full of His love, grace, truth. That is what He created you for, dear sister! He does have beautiful, individual plans for each life. He has amazing dreams for your precious life. Dreams that will bring Him the most glory and are for your best.
Won’t you join me today, in jumping off the “cliff” of your own limits, ideas, and dreams, and FLYING into His? You don’t have to keep striving and pushing yourself and going on your own strength to try and accomplish your small earthly dreams. He has dreamed bigger, greater, eternal dreams for you. Won’t you let Him have complete control today? Won’t you throw away the opinions of men and the enemy of your soul that have caused you to doubt God’s faithfulness? Won’t you let today be the day that you choose to trust Him greater than before, and even more tomorrow? It’s the only way you will ever be truly satisified and truly free…walking in utter surrender to Jesus. Fly!

But those who wait for the Lord [who expect, look for, and hope in Him] shall change and renew their strength and power; they shall lift their wings and mount up [close to God] as eagles [mount up to the sun]; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint or become tired.
Isaiah 40:31 (AMP)

While on the subject of flying, I’d like to share my pictures of the amazing transformation that took place in the Monarch caterpillar I raised for a month, and finally released last week. This has been a most delightful experience. What profound spiritual symbolism this beautiful process of God’s creation has! Truly, the Gospel is everywhere in creation! It amazes me over and over again.
Hermie was such a cute little guy as a caterpillar (and yes, he was certainly a male as I had guessed, as he had the two black scent spots on his hind wings once he emerged from the chrysalis!) but he was breathtakingly gorgeous as a butterfly! Oh how God wants that for each of us…to transform us into something much more beautiful spiritually than we were yesterday!

This is Hermie the day after I found him on a milkweed leaf. You can see that he has already shed his skin and it is lying beside him. He soon ate it for nourishment (as well as the hole out of the leaf above him). Monarch caterpillars outgrow and shed their skin 5 times!

Hermie had been with me for almost a week here. His stripes, colors and antennas are more distinct. He is eating more each day and growing so fast!

At this point, it had been 11 days since I apopted Hermie. Look how much he's grown and how much he's eating!

Hermie at day 12.

Hermie at day 14. This was his last day as "an ordinary caterpillar". He spent the entire next day on the bottom of the jar lid, spinning silk and preparing to become a chrysalis.

Hermie in his "J" position! Monarch caterpillars hang upside down and form a "J" before they shed their outer skin and become a chrysalis. On the evening of his 15th day with me, Mother and I watched him slowly suspend his little body upside down from the jar lid and bend it into a perfect "J". He had worked all day to make a substantial silk pad to hang from and had not eaten at all. My mothering nature wanted to intervene and I tried to gently open the lid to send a fresh leaf, but the strings of silk kept the lid attached. So I left him alone and encouraged him to "be what God created him to be"... and he listened!

I went to bed on day 15 and Hermie was a very still, silent "J". When I awoke the next morning, he had transformed into a chrysalis! Beautiful, bright green with 1 antenna still visible! The chrysalis is kind of like his inward body. It forms after he shed his beautiful stripes, and yet there is another "inward" body forming already inside the chrysalis! It amazes me because its a perfect picture of how God peels away the layers of our flesh so that our inward, spiritual person can emerge...different and more beautiful each time!

The chrysalis changed from bright green to a deeper, jade green the next day. It developed beautiful, shiny golden dots. For the next 8 days, there was no change and no movement. It was hard to believe there was a miraculous transformation going on inside the chrysalis.

The day before Hermie emerged as a butterfly, the chrysalis began to turn black, then translusent, as if God allowed us a "window" to peek inside and see the beauty He had been forming! You can clearly see his new, hand-painted wings!

Hermie's first picture as a butterfly! It was as if God said, "Ta-da!" I had been out and when I came inside, I ran to the jar to find him perching on the branch inside fluttering his wings! God stole my breath!

I removed the lid from his jar and snapped a picture of him inside. His wings had already dried!

Knowing we were going to have rainy weather for at least another day, I transferred Hermie to a basket with a mesh top so he could flap his wings better. He also ate from the flowers on my butterfly bush. Isn't he gorgeous?!