End of the World

Richard Bach’s well known quote, “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly,” is only part of what he said.  To quote him more fully, “The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls the butterfly.”  Richard Bach is a pilot and contemporary American author (Jonathan Livingston Seagull is one of his books) born in 1936. 

 Probably the phrase I heard most often as a mother was, “That’s not FAIR!” or some variation of that belief and I never made any headway in convincing my offspring that

IF life WAS fair, they would be much worse off then they are.

 “If life was fair,” I would preach, “Christ would not have suffered beyond comprehension because he had done NOTHING  wrong at all, EVER.”

That was meant to take the wind out of the their self-centered, self-righteous perspective. What they were demanding is JUSTICE which means we will get both what we have earned AND what we deserve.  What children (and most adults) want is justice for others but MERCY for ourselves.  We want the world to be the way we want it.  We think we deserve better than we have.  We want others to suffer for what they do to hurt us or those we love BUT when we hurt or err, we want forgiveness or exceptions to the golden rule because—because we want it to be the way we want it to be.  And we certainly don’t feel the way it should be should include pain, suffering, loss, struggle.   As the loving and WISE Father that he is, our Father in Heaven has a much greater and more compassionate plan for us than justice.   MERCY is the gift of the atonement wrought by his son which allows us to learn and grow from our experiences and ultimately overcome our personal shameful attitudes, actions and weaknesses.  Heavenly Father knows us, loves and is willing to give us the experiences we need to inherit a fullness of joy.   His plan is NOT fair.  We sin.  Christ suffers.  What's FAIR about that?  It's not FAIR.  What it is, is MERCY.  We ought to be on our knees in gratitude for that Mercy rather than indignantly demanding justice.   

Perhaps that’s what Richard Bach understood when he wrote that “the mark of ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy.”  The only REAL tragedy is those who fail to trust Heavenly Father and insist on going their own way even if it means driving their life off a cliff. 

 There are events in every life that will hit hard and send us reeling and we will sometimes dissolve in tears feeling like our world is ending.  But if we understand the life cycle of the butterfly, we trust our father and know, “that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8:18

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer;  I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33