Butterflies

We spent a wonderful few hours on Sunday afternoon wandering around the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory.  The sun was shining.  The birds were chirping, and the butterflies were busy flying from here to there and back again.  It was a wonderful respite from the snow and cold outside.
As we sat and soaked it all in, watching the butterflies and the children squealing with delight when a butterfly landed anywhere near them, it occurred to me that life for us really could be a lot simpler than we make it sometimes.

Too often we get caught up in things and lose sight of what's really important in life and living.  But the butterfly knows what matters:  eating, relaxing, and stopping to soak up its surroundings.  Now, most of us are good at eating--especially if we are church folk!  But relaxing and stopping to soak up our surroundings?  It seems to me that we're not so good at doing that.  Instead we get caught up in the whirring rush of life, planning for tomorrow, next week and next month.  We focus on tasks and serious business, and too easily forget to stop and smell the roses--or the nectar if you're a butterfly!
God created us to be in relationship with each other; with all of creation; and with God.  But how can we build relationships when we are so busy rushing around planning and doing?  So I invite you, during the next few days, to intentionally slow down and to focus on your relationships, old and new; with people and with this wonderful creation.  What can you do to nurture them?  What can you do to build new ones?  And maybe, just maybe, life will grow simpler, and at the same time more fun.