Rebirth #easter #love #sacrifice

It was a chrysalis; a pod that holds a baby butterfly. I looked up in the tree above.

“You fell didn’t you? How can I get you back?” There was no answer, no help.

I carried the chrysalis to my cave and put it in a very safe place. “What should I do with you? Should I bury you? I can’t.”

For 3 days Judah paced and mumbled in his cave. He couldn’t eat because he was sad about the small creature who had died.

Then on day 3, he heard a tiny voice. “Hello.” Is anyone there?”

“Hello” I saw the pod changing colour and I was afraid. “How can I help?” I said rather loudly.

“I must be hanging from something or I cannot come out the right way.”

I looked around in my cave. Then I grabbed the stub where the chrysalis had been attached to the tree. I let it hang down between my teeth. “Okay.”

I spent many hours as my wings little by little came out of the pod. When my eyes popped open, I saw something large and sharp. “What are those?” I tried to sound calm.

“My teeth.”

“What do you use them for?”

“Eating.”

“Like small creatures?”

“I eat many things.”

“Um, Mr Lion can you put me back where I came from.”

“The tree was too high. I can’t do it.”

I was too tired to argue. Maybe he would give me time to fly away. It was not easy, but I kept unfolding and drying my wet wings. I finally climbed on his big nose. I waved a wing at his eyes. “Hello, I’m Bethany. Can we be friends?”

“Oh yes. You are so beautiful. I would like to be friends very much.”

“Do lions eat their friends?”

“Never.”

***

“My God my God why have You forsaken me?” Mark 15:34

Many of us feel forsaken during these days of CoVid 19. God has not closed His eyes to our suffering. He’s right there.

Jesus died on the cross for our sins. His heart broke because our sins separated Him from the love of God  (for those 3 days.) Why would he do that? Because He loved us and wanted to free us. Judah the lion didn’t save the cocoon to then eat the butterfly. Jesus didn’t die for ours sins to then condemn us to eternal hell.

No one expected that in three days he would rise from the dead.  He is very much alive and we can be redeemed because sin has no hold on us in Christ. Just like Bethany the beautiful butterfly was reborn so can we be reborn in Jesus.

“He is not here; for He is risen, as He said.” Matthew 28:6

So rejoice-  Easter is the promise that death could not hold Jesus. It cannot hold us either.

 

 

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, (nor CoVid19) neither angels nor demons,[b]neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~Romans 8:38 & 39

 

Be suspended in the rays of Easter’s hope. Be loved by the one who died on the cross for YOU!!!

 

 

If you were… #children #fiction

If you were a butterfly would you be friends with a lion???

I didn’t think so.

Personally,I wouldn’t either.  We know a lion who saved a butterfly while she was still in her chrysalis and she saw something about him that others didn’t.

Now this butterfly and (domesticated) lion go about the villages of Uganda teaching children.

If you listen closely, you might hear Judah roar. Don’t be afraid it is the only way a lion knows how to laugh.

Join us (Sean and Leslie) in 2019 as we write the story of the world where giraffes and orabi graze and children dance and sing in the village schools of Uganda.

 

Butterfly #children #Atozchallenge

 

Alive with color

enamoured by this small creature

smile on her face

 

We use the puppets named Bethany (butterfly)  and Judah (Lion) to help teach our lessons. Puppets have an amazing ability to involve even shy children.

One of the first Acholi words I learned was La Fou Fou (Butter fly)

 

a2z-h-small

sharing with Napowrimo 2018 as well

The Lion and the Butterfly #poem

unlikely friends

need presses the issue

small sacrifice

generous rescuer

colourful child

king of all he sees

love conquers convention

our stories make children smile

 

What do a Ugandan cho and a la foufou have in common? They have found friendship in the Savanna when a lion rescues a helpless cocoon and gains a beautiful and loyal friend. The zoos and parks seem very responsible with their wildlife. This lioness will hopefully return to the wild when she is mature.baby elephant

motherless child

lake doesn’t claim this baby

large appetite

 

Poets United prompt today is Animals in recognition of World Animal Day

Mercy’s Butterfly #poetry

monarch black and white

She confident, flits

over my dry and barren soul

brush against fingertips

of my sorrow do you know?

Neither can we speak

I stand in silent wonder

vibrant never weak

heart beats strong like thunder

Daring and alive

this race that she is in

touch hope, now I strive

She vibrant as the wind

our eyes for moments meet

her smile so pure and bright

her convection ever sweet

my burden now seems light

Mercy takes a  wing

lift another is her goal

joy her journey brings

detach each from life’s shoals

****

Lift our spirits

gently remove life’s pain

Mercy’s butterfly

mercys butterfly

There are days when life seems too weighty. Those are the days when mercy is the greatest comfort. I hope this poem lifts your spirits (even for a moment.)

Thank you to Poet’s United for this week’s prompt – Mercy.

 

Proverbs 11:17  “A man who is kind (merciful)  benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”

Winter’s Rest #haiku #art #photography

abandoned house
the garden taken over –
butterfly home

© Iio Sogi (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

monarch on hand

feverish color

Butterfly shares refreshment

warm hand

I’m challenged to provide a juxtaposition in the text which I am not sure I have done, but I tried to create a symbiosis in the verse and art.

This wonderful Carpe Diem Haiku Kai prompt inspired by Kristjaan and Sogi (and the butterfly)

Pot of Gold #haiku #poem

 

Kristjaan Panneman takes a look at Kanshicho form of Haiku with Carpe Diem Haiku Kai:

“I will look at the separate “onji” of “Kanshicho” now and than I will try to explain what Kanshicho was meant to be.

Kan -> means: perception, expression

Shi -> means extravagance, pride, poetry

Cho -> means frivolity, number, butterfly
Kanshi -> means Chinese poetry

As I place those meanings together than Kanshicho means:

A poem in the Chinese way that expresses the extravagance and pride of the poet with the frivolity of the flight of a butterfly. And than Kanshicho starts to come to life. It’s an expression of something which is seen by the poet, a moment as short as the sound of a pebble thrown in to water, in which he/she sees the extravagant beauty  and pride of nature. That extravagance beauty is caught in a three lined verse with the frivolity, (in my opinion frivolity means “not strings attached, free”) of the flight of a butterfly.”

So here’s my shot at unconventional frivolous haiku:

rainbowecho 3924852858_53e886bc91

I’ll never let go

rainbow caresses my cheek

your smile in my hands

The Monarch #haiku #poem #art

 

beguiling petals

sweet infatuation

nectar’s captive

 

Kristjaan at Chevrefeuille’s Carpe Diem is always providing the most compelling prompts. The “Butterfly” has endless possibilities.

I enjoyed a morning studying, drawing and coloring the monarch butterfly.

Today – i am spring #poetry #atozchallenge #napowrimo

daisies

Today

I am a butterfly

free to dance

skipping from flower to flower

basking in the sun

**

Today

I am a robin

free to sing

notes float in the breeze

delighting listening ears

***

Today

I am a daisy

free to smile

opening my face to the day

happy bouquet of beauty

***

Today

I am a child

free to laugh

spinning in the warmth of spring

dancing with the butterflies

singing with the robins

smelling my daisy bouquet

Photography “Daisies” L. Moon  2012 © All rights reserved.