So, our church is named the Grove.  And we just so happen to have a sweet, older man in the church who creates bonsai trees.   Well, Weldon has made this bonsai grove— which is pretty incredible in itself.  But this week  I noticed something about this grove that amazes me.  Underneath one of the branches is a chrysalis— you know, a cocoon in which a worm is being turned into a butterfly.  Really– I am not making this up. I guess I must be getting old– because this moved me.   I thought to myself, “Isn’t this the perfect picture of what God wants this church to be– a Grove– a group of believers– where God is transforming each of us  into a beautiful butterfly–where we all meet face-to-face with God and are changed forever!”

^{2 Cor 3: 16-18}Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.