Butterflies and Boundaries

What do you give to the person who seems to have everything they need? Someone bought the woman I provide daily care for an interactive butterfly collection. It’s a butterfly in a jar. Tapping the jar one, two, or three times will “wake” the butterfly and cause it to do tricks. Setting something on the table can have the same effect. It’s cute, but there’s something wrong about it.

Now I am completely aware that it is not a real butterfly, but even still the thought of holding a butterfly captive and forcing it to do tricks is not an image I want. Butterflies were not created to be held captive. They were created to flit among flowers, skim over the grass, and gently land upon those who are still. Their grace, beauty, and delicate nature speak to the wonder and whimsical nature of their creator.

I feel the same way when I watch children catching fireflies and putting them in jars. It’s not right. Chase them and laugh as they allude your grasp. Sit and watch them light up the yard or field as daylight slips into darkness. But why trap them? Why confine them to a place that removes them from where they can live freely? Why condemn them to an early death, separated from what they know and love?

I wonder if that’s how God feels when we allow ourselves to be captured and held captive by things that will drain the life out of us, when we give into addictions, lusts and sinful desires? I wonder if God’s heart breaks to see us place our fragile hearts into the hands of the deceiver? Don’t we realize we were created for more?

In an attempt to keep us safe when we were young children, my parents put a fence around our swing set. We had a nice size yard, but we were confined to the smaller area. I remember watching kids in nearby yards running freely and being very jealous of their ability to seemingly roam at will. It wasn’t fair. I resented my parents. I imagine I felt like a butterfly in a jar.

Later in life when I came upon a verse in Psalms, I felt that same feeling of injustice rising up within me. David wrote in in Psalm 139 that he felt that God hemmed in behind and before. Reading the Psalm, I don’t get any impression that David resents God’s hemming him in. On the contrary, he seems to be marveling at how God had protected him, even from the womb.

The only fence in my yard is for my dogs. I have on numerous occasions reiterated the boundary lines for play and bike riding to my five year old grandson. It is for his safety and protection. We don’t need to push the boundaries if we can trust the one who seeks to keep us safe. Trust me, I speak from pain-full experience, there is no wisdom in breaking those boundaries.

I still will probably never understand a butterfly in a jar. But I will always understand the need for a good fence. God has my full submission, and appreciation, for any boundary he wants to put in my life.