In creation we find many examples depicting the truth of death and resurrection. For example, the trees are bare in winter and we think that is normal because it is an annual cycle. But if you look at such a tree without knowledge of this cycle, you would think that tree is dead. Yet that tree will grow again in the spring, new life will come into it, an image of resurrection from the dead.
This also applies to the animal world. In the spring lambs are born again, the birds lay eggs and have young, etc. In all these things we find illustrated that life conquers death.
metamorphosis
Perhaps one of the most beautiful illustrations of death and resurrection is the butterfly. That butterfly has not always been a butterfly, but starts its life as a caterpillar and undergoes a metamorphosis. A metamorphosis is a complete transformation.
A caterpillar is an animal that can do almost nothing. He can move around somewhat and eat his fill, that’s all. It is attached to this earth with its entire being.
But at some point the caterpillar will pupate and wrap itself like a mummy. He makes a cocoon and stays in that cocoon for a while. The caterpillar no longer comes out of the cocoon, it dies there, as it were. Over time, a completely different creature emerges from that cocoon, a butterfly. The caterpillar has undergone a complete metamorphosis. He is no longer a being bound to the earth, but can go wherever he wants: in heaven and on earth.
resurrection
As we bury our dead, so the caterpillar is “buried” in the cocoon. But that’s not the end. A completely different creature emerges from that cocoon: a butterfly with wings, which flies into the sky and is free to go wherever it wants.
So also will be the resurrection of the dead. The dead will be made alive with a completely new body, free from disease and infirmity. Every person will one day receive that life. That is our hope, that is the expectation we have. What a day that will be!
1 Corinthians 15
22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
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