Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Last month, my daughter-in-love, Jordan, and I were hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains along the Deep Creek Waterfall Loop trail when we noticed butterflies... not just one or two, but a whole slew of them! We were amazed by how many there were!

"What do you call a group of butterflies?" we wondered.

The answer has been delighting me ever since Mama Google informed us that a plethora of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. We were walking in a kaleidoscope of butterflies! I love it! Whoever came up with that name gets an A+ in creativity in my book - a perfect way to describe the beauty of a bevy of butterflies!

Kaleidoscopes have always intrigued me... the way that light, colorful glass, mirrors and movement dance together to create such unexpected and ever-changing beauty. What might seem at first glance to be an unremarkable pile of ordinary bits of broken glass shimmers to life with a little illumination! It is the light that opens our eyes to see the extraordinary amidst the ordinary.

We are entering what is known as Ordinary Time in the Christian liturgical calendar. It can be tempting to down-play this simple season in between the "biggies" of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. However, as I ease into Ordinary Time and the dog days of summer, I want to keep my eyes open for God's presence that illuminates the extraordinary amidst the ordinary bits of my everyday life - reading in the hammock, gazing at the stars, savoring butter-drenched corn-on-the-cob, and holding tightly to the hand of someone I love. Where might you see the extraordinary amidst the ordinary this summer?

If you just so happen to see a butterfly flitting about your yard, remember the kaleidoscope. Be assured that God's light shines in, through and beyond us all ... allowing us to see the extraordinary, sacred beauty amidst the ordinary, broken bits of our lives.

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5