While working in her garden today, my lovely bride spotted the craziest looking creature with the face of a puppydog, the body of a caterpillar. In an odd sort of way, it reminded me of Revelation 4:7-8 (Four crazy looking creatures proclaiming the holiness of God). Surely, this little caterpillar couldn’t be making similar claims, could it?
As it turns out this little fellow has a name: it is a larva of the Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly. When young, the caterpillar is in full birdpoop mode. From a distance, it is indistinguishable from something no predator would want to eat. But look straight in its eyes and you see…a puppy. Wow.
As it gets older, its skin takes on paintings that make it look remarkably like a snake (a really cute snake, but still…). Finally, after its metamorphosis is complete, it is the Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly.
I am sure someone can explain to me how over a period of millions of years this caterpillar decided to make itself look like birdpoop and snakes. [Caterpillar to self: “Hmm…I need to look like birdpoop, so that no bird will eat me because it will think it already did. But then eventually, I will have to move, so at that point I had better look like a snake.”] What amazing foresight and planning – a paragon of thinking ahead! Or perhaps its pigmentations just randomly mutated over time…to be an exact replica of a snake (a really cute snake…but still).
Or perhaps there is another explanation. Perhaps like the four creatures in Revelation 4:7-8, this caterpillar is just showing off the glory of God. After all, if even rocks can do it (Lk 19:40), maybe a caterpillar can.
cc
