Cellular Regeneration

The pop science that I am familiar with tells us that every decade or so, the human body completes a cycle of cellular regeneration, meaning that the old cells die out and are replaced with new ones without our even knowing it. You get a whole new body, then, every so often.

If you are reading this, you should thank me right now for not posting an image of a snake shedding its skin, which it also does periodically. Instead, I will stick with a butterfly life cycle as the symbol of choice moving forward.

In the past few years, I have undergone a complete regeneration, shed completely all of my life, and have grown into a new one. The metaphors could continue:  I have metamorphosed, from a worm to a butterfly. However I think the process continues on as long as we live. Worm, cocoon, butterfly, death. Worm, cocoon, butterfly, death. Worm....continued in perpetuity until raised to new life in heaven. According to a quote from Downton Abbey, we cannot resist change. It's futile: "If we don't change we die."

I have lost a lot. God has gently asked me to give up a lot. Some has been taken from me. Some has been bloodied sacrifice. All of it was painful. But piece by piece it has all fallen away as new growth pushed out the old in preparation for the new. I do not see the future vision. I don't have the view. Only with perspective and time may I ever.

But at least I can be confident that God is calling me to growth and strength and pursuit of the Truth and Good that He has for me. I see how I am in transition into a whole new self, having let go of the old, and clinging to the new. I hope that my heart can catch up to what my mind knows is True.