While on home assignment in Ohio a couple years ago, my boys and I got to see up close the metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly. I say “up close” because after the caterpillar that my sister gave us ate through its milkweed leaves, it attached its brilliant green and gold spotted chrysalis to the bottom rung of a chair in my parents’ living room. Grandma, a retired science teacher, took great delight in explaining each step of the monarch’s transformation to her grandsons. The boys were in elementary school at the time, still young enough to be totally captivated by this at-home science lesson.

I was captivated by the fact that the adult butterfly is known as “imago.” Butterfly metamorphosis has long been used by Sunday school teachers as the perfect illustration of the Biblical concept of transformation. However, realizing that the final step of the monarch’s metamorphosis is called “imago,” or the perfect image of the butterfly, seems to take the Sunday school illustration to a whole new level. 

The monarch’s “imago” wings brought my mind to the Latin phrase “Imago Dei.” We know that every human being carries the image of God as part of his or her inherent makeup. This is what sets people apart from the rest of God’s beautiful creation. This is why so many of us left our homes and our families and stepped into global ministry; we want to make sure everyone knows the beauty of Imago Dei. But our true goal as Christians is to step beyond the Imago Dei that we all carry, and to be transformed into Imago Christi.

Our butterfly was considered a monarch when it was just a tiny white egg attached to a milkweed plant. The yellow and black striped caterpillar was a monarch, and so was the brilliant green chrysalis. But only the adult is called “imago,” because that’s the stage of metamorphosis that actually looks like a monarch butterfly.

In the same way, we should actually look like Jesus Christ - in our actions, in our words, in our character. Our journey takes us from being made in Imago Dei to being transformed into Imago Christi.