Look at that cold creeping worm!

Look at that cold creeping worm!

(Thomas Guthrie, 1803-1873)

Look at that cold creeping worm! The playful child shudders from its touch! 

Yet in a few weeks, and with merry laugh and flying feet, that same child over flowery meadow, is hunting an insect that never lights upon the ground–but flitting in painted beauty from flower to flower–drinks nectar from their cups, and sleeps the summer night away in the bosom of their perfumes.

If that is the same boy–this is also the same creature. The change most wonderful! 

Yet this is but a dull, earthly emblem of the divine transformation wrought on those who are converted by God!

Fallen though he is, man is capable of undergoing a more wondrous change than the insect when, no longer a worm, no longer crawling on the ground, no longer feeding on garbage–it leaves its shell to spend its happy days in sport, flitting from flower to flower; its food their sweet juices, and its bed their tender leaves. 

The spiritual change which we call conversion, is not a mere reform. It is a mighty revolution–a revolution greater than the tomes of secular history. Conversion changes the heart, the habits, and the eternal destiny of an immortal being!

Conversion does not bestow new faculties. Yet our affections, our temperament, our will, and our judgment–partake of this great and holy change. Thus, the understanding is enlightened; the will is renewed; and our whole temperament is sweetened and sanctified by the Spirit of God.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone–the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17