Dreams With Faces

We all have dreams.

They whirl and sparkle around us like butterflies just out of reach of the net.

When I was around four or five my Mom bought us a real net to try to catch butterflies with. It wasn’t anything fancy. I think she’d grabbed it from the Dollar Tree, and before we’d had it a single day one of us ripped a hole in the thin mesh. But for a few short, sweet hours, it was wholly (pun intended) ours. And our goal was to catch ourselves one butterfly and stick it in a mason jar.

There was more than one butterfly flying around that morning. We chased them around the grass swinging our net, but somehow the butterflies kept flitting away. I remember feeling angry and frustrated. I really wasn’t sure if I would ever catch a butterfly. Would I ever have the glowing pride of watching it fly around in the jar?

Dreams are beautiful, and dreams are hard. They’re even harder when they have faces. All of us are familiar with that “Someday” or “Someone” but finally the day comes when Someday and Someone seem to fall into your life. Instead of a vague aspiration, you have a goal. Instead of a blurred Prince Charming in your head, you have a guy in front of your very eyes smiling at you. Suddenly your dreams are like that butterfly, beautiful, breathtaking, flying away just out of reach.

This evening I was swinging in my hammock listening to music and watching an August summer sunset. I was dreaming. I was hoping. And dang, was I discontented.

I’m not good enough. No one will ever want me. What can I do to get what I want?

And suddenly, that butterfly was a mosquito. It bit me. I had several swollen bumps on my arms and legs. The sunset wasn’t inspiring anymore and the evening wasn’t enjoyable. I had gone from having a good, solid evening to disliking myself and being disappointed with the people around me.

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I couldn’t catch the butterfly that day all those years ago. My legs were too short to chase it. I didn’t know how to sneak up on it just right, and I didn’t have the fine-tuned motor skills to swing the net in time. 

That’s why Mom caught the butterfly for me. And what a beautiful butterfly it was. A golden, buttery yellow. She carefully took it inside and let us watch as she gently dropped it in a mason jar. We watched that butterfly fly around, sunny and bright. It was ours. Mom had got it for us.

When that dream with a face walks through your door, what do you do to get it?

To secure it for yourself?

To make it yours?

Nothing.

Let God catch the butterfly. Let Him hold your dreams. Watch them flutter just out of your reach and enjoy how beautiful they are. You don’t need to claim them for your own, because the Father has already dreamed up a plan for you. Perhaps it's what you've been hoping for all this time; perhaps not.

Whatever His dream for you is, it's going to be better.

Don’t let the beautiful butterfly drifting across the lawn become the mosquito buzzing in your ear.

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After Mom caught the butterfly for us, we watched it fly around in the jar. But after a while, the time came to let the butterfly go. We had to watch it fly away.

I remember feeling sad as the butterfly soared away to freedom. I was going to miss it.

One day your dreams will have to fly away as they came.

And you should never be the one to hold them.

Will you let Jesus Christ catch the butterfly for you?