I first read Trina Paulus' book, "Hope for the Flowers" back in High School. It is a story about a caterpillar named Stripe. The story had no impact on me back then; I just read it because it was required reading for our English class... And so I went on to college, graduated, got a job and started working. It was then that I stumbled upon the book again inside National Bookstore. I flipped through the pages, started reading and before I knew it, I had finished the book right there and then, right in front of the "No Private Reading" sign inside the store.
I couldn't get enough of the book and so I bought a copy for my own even though I had already read it from cover to cover. (And that was how the name "Pepperstripe" came to be.)
Stripe's story goes like this:
Stripe was born a tiny striped caterpillar who loved to crawl around and eat leaves. He became bored with just crawling around in a field. One day, when he was looking off in the distance, he saw a pillar going up into the sky. He thought, "I wonder what that is." He crawled toward the pillar, and saw that it was a pillar of caterpillars climbing upward. He couldn't see the top of the pillar because it went up into a cloud. He thought, "Maybe that's what caterpillars are supposed to do--climb caterpillar pillars." He got on the caterpillar pillar and started to climb up. The only way to do that was to step on other caterpillars' heads, so he kept pushing his way up. Every once in a while, he would ask another caterpillar, "What is at the top of the pillar?" They all said, "We don't know, but everyone is going up there, so it must be something important."
On his way up, he stepped on the head of a little yellow caterpillar that was very pretty. He felt bad about that, and did something someone isn't supposed to do when he is stepping on others' heads--he looked her in the eye. He thought, "She's a lovely little caterpillar." He said to her, "Maybe it would be better not to climb this caterpillar pillar, but to go back to the field and just hug a lot." The two of them worked their way down the caterpillar pillar into the field, and hugged a lot. After a while, hugging got a little boring, and Stripe said, "I'm going to go back up the caterpillar pillar and see what's up there." She said, I can't go back up that," so Stripe left her.
Lonely, the pretty yellow caterpillar was crawling around in a field when she saw something funny hanging from a branch. It was half of a little case and half of a caterpillar. She said to the caterpillar, "What are you doing?" He said, "I'm spinning a cocoon." She asked, "Why are you doing that?" The caterpillar said, "Because I'm going to die." She said, "Why do you want to die?" He said, "Because if I die, I will be born again as a butterfly." She said, "Are you sure? Suppose you aren't born as a butterfly?" He said, "I will become born again as a butterfly, because that's what caterpillars are made to be. But they have to die first."
She thought about that for a long time, because doing that was a big decision. Finally, she decided she'd be willing to die and be born as a butterfly. She realized that if she did that, she wouldn't have to climb the caterpillar pillar; she could fly over the top and look down to see what was up there. She spun a cocoon and died, and became born as a butterfly. So she flew over to the caterpillar pillar and found Stripe, very close to the top of the pillar, almost about to find out what was at the top.
Do you know what happened when a caterpillar got to the top? A caterpillar underneath him would push him off, making him fall all the way to the bottom of the pillar and die. But before that happened to Stripe, she rescued him. Later on, Stripe spun a cocoon and became a butterfly too.
Once again, there was hope for the flowers...
What does that story say? It says that if you're willing to die, you can be born again into a better life. For two caterpillars, we all know, surrendering to the cocoon is the only way to finally fly. For us humans, surrendering to the Lord and allowing Him to fulfill His purpose for us in our lives is the only way to finally fly -- to have eternal life with Him.
That is His purpose for us...
If you want to read the longer version (full text) of the story, click here. Or better yet, buy a copy of the book from National Bookstore and experience the fun reading it with the illustrations and all.
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"Life is changed, not taken away."
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