So the other day I was enjoying breakfast with some pals, as any supporter of granola with fruit would, when one of my friends told me this strange fact -

"Wasps lay their baby eggs on caterpillars and slowly, as they mature, they begin to steal nutrients from the caterpillar and then eat it from the inside out."

Now I know what you are thinking, "What?".

There is no possible way to be certain how this statement arose but I am certain it did put a small damper in the granola eating for a couple seconds.

Although, as the conversation carried on past this fact I could not help but linger on it and, well, here is what came from that lingering.

This relationship between the wasp and the caterpillar (get ready for it to get serious for a sec) became a prevalent example to me of what the Devil does in our lives.

Now before you get all, "alright lady stop with your metaphors", I would like to ask you 1. to never to call me lady and 2. to think about it.

The Devil continuously plants these eggs on our backs - these could come in the form of feeling you are not good enough, jealousy, anger, doubt in the Lord, or anything else that distracts you from God's goodness.

These eggs may not eat us from the inside out right away but slowly they will begin to plant their roots. They will steal nourishment from us, turning everything we intake into energy it can take us down with.

Some of you may argue that the worst part is the act of getting eaten from the inside out, fair point. Though I think the worst part is how unaware the caterpillar is. The caterpillar does not truly recognize anything as being wrong until it is too late.

We are the same way.

We go about our everyday lives experiencing self hate, depression, anxiety, jealousy, obliviousness and we think it is normal. We begin to satisfy the new hunger with earthly things and if we let it go on long enough, we will be hollowed from the inside out. It has become accepted in society for people to feel this way and for it not to be acknowledged as much as it should.

But those are all just eggs that a wasp has placed on us.

A wasp that has hopes its eggs will destroy us and mature to plant new eggs on someone else.

The good news - we are not caterpillars.

We have a God who sees internal struggles, like a wasp's babies trying to eat our organs, and who has the grace and power to help. We have the ultimate nourishment that will sastisfy any hunger. We have a God who has a plan for us that may include battling some eggs. We have a God who through his love makes us..

Get ready for the cheesy but true line -

butterflies.