In early September as days turn cool, large numbers of beautiful black and orange monarch butterflies begin to flock and migrate from the north about 2,000 miles south to the Gulf Coast areas of Florida and Mexico and to Pacific Grove, California in the west. The certainty of the migration is so reliable that each year tourists come to see it. Not one of these butterflies has ever made this trip before, and there are no older ones to guide them as the parents of all these butterflies died while in the north.

How then do they know the right time to leave? What is the signal that sends each flock off in a great cloud several miles wide and many miles in length? How do they know where to go? How do these fragile insects have strength to travel so far and stay on course in strong winds? The only answer to these questions is that the Creator of the monarch butterfly has given them the ability to make these migrations when He made them. Year after year they are guided by their God-given instincts to make the trip so necessary for the continuing life of their species.

In a similar manner God has given man a spirit that is able to respond to his Creator for the direction needed for his trip to eternity. The final destination for every human being is either heaven or hell. Through the Word of God and the Spirit of God, witness is borne to the only way to heaven. "Jesus saith, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6). "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Personal trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour is the only way to life. "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:11,12). Man often tries other ways in unbelief, but they all take him off course and end in death (Proverbs 16:25).

After resting all winter, in the spring the adult monarch butterflies begin their return trip north, laying eggs as they go. Few of them survive, but are replaced by the new generations born along the way. In the early summer, great swarms of these beautiful black and orange insects arrive in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and across the continent in Alaska. There the milkweed plant, their favorite food, grows in abundance. The female wastes no time, but flits about depositing eggs on the underside of the leaves of this plant. Using a cement from her own body, she attaches one egg to each leaf.

Tiny caterpillars, about one-eighth inch long, hatch out in less than a week. They first eat the egg shell from which they have come, and then they eat nothing but milkweed leaves. After about two weeks they have grown to their full size of about two inches. These caterpillars are not at all pretty like their parents, but have a skin with unusual coloration of yellow, black and green stripes.

The monarch's Creator didn't intend them to remain ugly and destructive. After reaching full size, each caterpillar produces a tough, silken thread from its mouth which it anchors under a leaf or twig, and then suspends itself. At this time its final layer of skin peels off, and its exposed body soon hardens in the air, providing a pretty, smooth, waxy, green covering. Wrapped in this it changes into a pupa. During the next twelve days a great change takes place. Finally, a beautiful butterfly emerges, with wings pressed tightly against its sides. At once it climbs up on a leaf to rest an hour or more while its wings expand and harden. Suddenly, without the help of any lessons or trial flights, it spreads its wings and flies away, a fully-grown, mature butterfly. From now on it spends its time feeding on nectar until the September migration south.

Man's life begins unattractively, too, being born in sin and shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). His only purpose is destructive to his soul as the Bible states, "fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind: and were by nature the children of wrath" (Ephesians 2:1-3). However, this is not according to God's purpose in creation of man to glorify Him and be His companion. Because of sin—disobedience to God—man has fallen into this lost condition. He needs to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus, giving him new desires and appetites, to live to the glory of God. He must be "born again" (John 3:3,7), for "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Only with true repentance to God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can a man's life be seen as beautiful in the eyes of God and men. His food of sustenance will then be the Word of God which is "sweeter than honey" and his life will manifest the great change resulting from new birth.

—Adapted from Messages of the Love of God.