Killing Caterpillars

I was over at my grandparents old house recently, unloading "junk" we are going to get rid of in a yard sale. To me, this place is hallowed ground, filled with the all the magic of grandma's house. The house has fallen into disrepair and the land is now fallow, but remnants of its former glory remain. Before returning to my labors, I took a moment to walk through the backyard. Amidst the junk people have piled on the lot illegally and the overgrown brush, there is still a section of flowers my grandmother planted. That's when I saw .

the fiery orange flower sticking its head up defiantly among the brush. It was a wonderful reminder of that former glory of my grandmother's garden. As I was growing up, the backyard of my grandparents' house was teeming with life. There were tiger lilies, daffodils, roses, apricot trees and a victory garden with all sorts of vegetables. I remember shucking corn and snapping peas with my grandmother. It is a wonderful memory. I also remember all that my grandfather did to help preserve the garden. One particular method he used to keep his garden and his trees healthy was killing caterpillars. My sister and I were always appalled as we watch him light a rag at the end of a long pole and set the web-like caterpillar nests on fire. We would ask him why he did such a thing. Didn't he know that caterpillars turned into beautiful butterflies that would flit around to pollinate the flowers? Didn't he know that you shouldn't destroy such beautiful creatures? He told us that, though caterpillars become butterflies, they must first eat a lot of food, his food. If he didn't destroy them before they emerged, then they would eat wholes in the lettuce, roses and flowers and the beautiful garden would be destroyed. There are so many lessons in that moment, but the one I continue to take away is this: sometimes what we think is beautiful is potentially destructive. Thinking childishly, I wanted to save the caterpillars not realizing that it would destroy the garden that I loved. It took a wiser mind than mine to see what was true and, even amid the horrified protests of his grandchildren, choose to do what needed to be done. This can apply in a lot of ways to our lives, but to me I think it applies best to God's will. Sometimes we stand appalled at God's choices. We are appalled at His instructions to the Israelites to utterly destroy their enemies. We are appalled that He would choose such unlearned men to be His disciples. We are appalled at the things He would allow to happen in our lives. I've come to the realization that it is like the killing of those caterpillars. Those things are things I can't really comprehend right now. Those things are things I might not even comprehend in my lifetime, but one day I will. Right now, I just have to understand that it isn't God's cruelty to allow things to happen in our lives and in our world. It is His sovereign understanding of what it takes to grow glory for Himself in us and in His world. After all, only He understands what it takes to protect the garden of faith.