Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

This morning on my walk I was accompanied by butterflies: a soft, creamy, small one, and medium-sized brown one with fascinating, jagged wings, and a larger, elegant, yellow and black one that stopped me in my tracks.

As the third butterfly glided near me, I thought of God’s creativity. As it began to float downward, I pondered the image it presents of new life in Christ. And then…it landed on doggie doo.

On purpose.

It even aimed for it.

And then stayed on it.

For quite some time.

My poetic ponderings paused, I just stood there stunned.

I am pretty sure that I have never written a post about doggie doo before. But this is less about the doo than the choice of the butterfly.

We have three BIG dogs and they leave BIG deposits normally out in the woods. But the eldest’s placement has become more random of late as she struggles with her vision and control.

Even so, while there are dogs, there will be doggie doo. Such is life.

But of all the veggie plants and fruit trees and flowering whatevers on our five acres, the butterfly chose the doo. Online, a few clicks of research made it clear that this was not unusual. Butterflies are often found munching on all manner of messes. Who knew?

And I stood there wishing I had a camera, I felt prompted to write: as though some beautiful new creation out there is on the verge of making the same choice of planting their God-made-new self on a mess.

Throughout the day, the sense has only grown stronger. So just in case a soul reading this is about to land on a decision that will grossly affect their spiritual health and the shape of their future, allow me to offer the following:

You have a free will. Use it to choose life, not death.

Whatever it is, whatever benefit you think you may receive from it, if Jesus died on the cross for it, it is because it is an agent of spiritual death.

Secrecy is a myth. Sin sticks and stinks. You cannot not easily wash it off after it has been ingested. It affects everything in you and everyone near you.

For the love of God, may we all walk away from the mess and heed John’s admonition: “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2:6)