Prison Stripes – When darkness turns you into something better
Prison Stripes. Can darkness turn you into something better?
I believe it can
When the caterpillar emerges from the chrysalis
No longer wearing the prison stripes it once knew
No longer marching its many feet in formation
To the beat of its hunger pangs
Like a chain gang
Needing food
It has transformed
Into a beautiful butterfly
Its new brightly coloured, iridescent wings
Basking in the sun, drying
Ready for flight
PRISON STRIPES
We all love a good transformational story, don’t we?
But don’t you find, that sometimes people leave out the dark times of their story?
As though it’s still too painful to re-visit?
They no longer want to talk about the prison stripes they once wore
That determined their identity
Talking about their prison stripes
Kinda feels out of place now
Like a zebra standing in a field of thoroughbred horses
But we need to share our dark times
Because only then will the light feel so much brighter
To be fully transformed into a butterfly
You have to first let the darkness transform you
From the inside out
You have to let darkness do its job
And turn you into something better
WHEN THE DARKNESS TURNS YOU INTO SOMETHING BETTER
Sometimes, God will cocoon you in a chrysalis
And leave you in the darkness for a while
Because He wants you to understand
That for the transformation to happen
You have to trust Him
By staying in the darkness and safety of the chrysalis
Now, that can be hard
When your used to being in the light
Darkness can feel lonely
Darkness can feel like you’ve been forgotten
Darkness must mean that God doesn’t care anymore, right?
You can either turn bitter or better in the darkness
But this is where God performs His best transformations
Stripping away everything that has blinded you
And giving you the vision to see what He wants to develop in you
A chrysalis is designed to protect the caterpillar
Not to harm it
And as you go through the transformation, while in the dark
You will do your best growing and developing
Where there are no distractions
Just God and you
God knew your wings had to be protected
As they were not yet fully formed
Because they needed the darkness to develop and grow strong
The darkness helped your wings gain the strength to transform
Into the beautiful butterfly you have now become
God used the darkness to help you shed your prison stripes
And turned you into something better
So, fly little butterfly, fly!
Wendy xo