A Butterfly’s Path

Why don’t butterflies fly in a straight path?

Today, I watched a yellow swallowtail butterfly dodge and flutter around the birds gathered at my birdfeeder.

None were able to catch it, and it occurred to me that its haphazard flight path saves it from harm.

As I watched, my teenage daughter was telling me about her summer as a camp counselor. She enjoyed helping children know Jesus and grow closer to Him, but she said, “It seemed like everything I prayed for happened in a way I didn’t expect. It was like there were no straight lines to the outcomes I thought I wanted.”

Perhaps the Israelites felt that way when David sang them Psalm 105. The instruction to give thanks, sing praise, and glory in His name came in spite of the fact that their path had been anything but straight.

“They were few in number, of little account, and sojourners wandering from nation to nation… When He summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, He had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; His neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass…”

The twisting and turning of the Biblical narrative is painful to read. The foreshadowing of Christ’s betrayal, trial, and death is excruciating. The road to forgiveness, peace, and an eternal kingdom is not a straight road. 

In the middle of the story, it seems like a haphazard flight path with no rhyme or reason, a butterfly twitching, twisting, and turning chaotically. 

Research from Johns Hopkins University shows that the flight of the butterfly relies on both its wings and its body. The wings form a sort of wind pocket to create lift, and the body is continually rotating and tipping, even when maintaining the same trajectory.

It’s a complex system that has purpose and intentionality, ultimately protecting the butterfly from its many predators while it gets to where it’s going.

When the Lord brought His people out of slavery in Egypt, it was anything but a straight path. When the Lord sent His people into captivity in Babylon, they couldn’t see around the bend in that road. When Jesus didn’t liberate the nation of Israel but died a bloody criminal’s death, it seemed a dead-end.

But, the butterfly’s flight trajectory has purpose. It has a destination, and so did Christ.

“The Lord our God remembers His covenant forever, the Word that He commanded for a thousand generations.”

The bumps in the road, the twists and turns, the erratic detours, were those times when we most needed reassurance of His faithfulness. They were times to practice trust. And in so doing, we were protected from our enemies. The shield of faith grew stronger with every detour, and when we reach our final destination, we’ll look back and see that it was a straight path after all.

“He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”