Look, look: it is small and long like a worm. Watch it crawl, creeping slowly along the leaf. What is is doing? See the holes? It is eating the leaf with its tiny nibbling jaws! What is this new animal friend? Why, it is

The Confident Caterpillar: Faith

Maybe it is black and blue, or perhaps it is striped like a tiger, or a pale lime green. Caterpillars come in many colors and live on many plants; some eat our garden cabbages! Nibble, nibble, munch, and soon the leaf is full of holes. Why do I call him confident? Just watch a bit. The little tiny creature doesn’t think about anything but food as he nibbles all around the leaf. Where is he now? Oh, there he goes, right up that stem to search for something more to eat. He isn’t stopped by anything!

The caterpillar is confident that eating is what he should do, and so he keeps at it. He doesn’t worry about the birds, or that the food might run out. He doesn’t stop to think about how other animals hop, fly, and run, and wish he could be like them. God can take care of everything else. He just eats, and grows bigger, and eats. Suddenly one day he stops eating and sits very still. Hanging upside down he begins to spin little threads around and around. God made the caterpillar that way for a special reason, but the little caterpillar doesn’t know why. It spins its chrysalis and trusts God to take care of everything else.

How can we be like the caterpillar? God didn’t make us to eat all day, but He did make us to be His children. He wants us to obey, and love, and be good and not worry or complain. Just like the caterpillar, we need to do our part, and trust God to do the rest. Jesus said “Have faith in God.” That means to trust God to take care of you, to protect you from dangers, to give you what you need. We need to be confident like the caterpillar. Maybe it seems dark and alone in the chrysalis. There are no green leaves to eat or space to move. Is he worried and lonely? No, he just hangs there quietly, because that is what God told him to do. And because he has faith in God, he is going to become a beautiful butterfly.

Do you want God to make you into something beautiful? The secret is faith. It is being confident and very sure that God is there and that He loves you. You don’t have to be afraid of what might happen, or complain because you can’t be like someone else. You can trust God and know that He has a plan, a butterfly plan, even if you are only little and plain and can’t do much. Have faith that God can.