Behold the creeping worm!

(Thomas Guthrie, "Christ and the Inheritance of the Saints" 1803-1873)

LISTEN to audio!  Download audio

(You will find it helpful to listen to the audio above, as you read the text below.)


Behold the creeping worm,
   it is bred in corruption,
   it crawls on the ground,
   its food is the coarsest fare.

But in time, it undergoes its wonderful metamorphosis. The wriggling caterpillar, becomes a winged and painted butterfly! And at this change, along with its old skin, it casts off its old habits and instincts. Now, it has a will as well as wings to fly. Now . .  .
 its bed is the bosom of a flower,
 its food is the honeyed nectar,
 its home is the sunny air, and
 new instincts animate its frame.
The change within, corresponds to the change without. It now spurns the ground, and, as you may gather from its merry, mazy dance-the creature is happy, and delights in the new duties which it is called to perform.

Just so it is in that change which grace works in sinners!
Their nature is now so accommodated to their redeemed state,
their wishes are so fitted to their wants,
their hopes are so fitted to their prospects,
their aspirations are so fitted to their honors,
and their will is so fitted to their work-
that they would be less content to return to their old polluted pleasures-than the beautiful butterfly would desire to be stripped of its silken wings, and condemned to pass its days amid the old, foul garbage, its former food!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!" 2 Corinthians 5:17

    ~  ~  ~  ~

Something to ponder
Thomas Guthrie: "A most amazing spectacle is here-the Son of God turns His back on Heaven! He leaves the bosom and happy fellowship of his Father, He bares his own bosom to the sword of justice, and in the depths of a love never to be fathomed-He dies on that accursed tree, the just for the unjust, that we might be saved!"