The Bridge, the Caterpillar and the Suitcase

Dawna De Silva, founder of the Sozo ministry, has been releasing short video clips on Facebook and Instagram. One of them really struck Henry and me.

Dawna released this particular clip from a lovely spot on the bank of the Sacramento River. Standing looking towards a substantial bridge, she suggested that we, the church, are currently on a bridge. We are making our way across it and this journey represents an opportunity for a process of preparation and transformation to take place within us.

The world will be very different when we emerge after the crisis and we have the call to be prepared.

While we were processing this, I had a picture of a caterpillar and a chrysalis. It felt as if the bridge was a place where both stages in the development of a butterfly were happening together. Both stages are essential. There is much choice food coming in, and we are gobbling it up; but it is also a time when we need to draw aside and find a quiet place to process everything we are hearing. Henry commented that the DNA of a caterpillar has within it the genes to produce the mature butterfly. You need the chrysalis stage to activate these genes so that the butterfly can emerge.

I've also had a recurring dream of being about to leave on a trip and desperately trying to pack at the last minute. The suitcase is out on the bed, but I am always struggling to decide what to put in it, and time is fast running out. There is a personal application which I recognize, but it also feels like a more general call to us as a community to get prepared. This was reinforced when we spent time with God processing what I had seen; Father reminded us of the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew 25), and the importance of being ready.

We were talking about this dream in our Sozo team meeting and wondering what needed to go into the suitcase. Coming out of the meeting, Henry and I felt what needed to go in was ‘righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 14:17). But then we thought, hang on, why do we need a suitcase? We shouldn’t be taking out righteousness, peace and joy when we need them; they are not accessories: these are things we can be clothed with every day. If we are clothed right, we can get straight on the bus!

Prophetic words we are hearing from a number of sources suggest that we are in a time of shaking ahead of a fresh visitation which will unfold as the crisis recedes. Our own sense is that more is being decided in terms of, for example, the future direction of our country than we have any idea of at the moment. This requires a church which is ready to flow with what God is doing, rather than scrambling to keep up.