“Excuse me,” said the caterpillar, “but I think there has been some mistake in my appointment letter!”

“What appointment letter?” I asked.

“The one saying I am going to fly! Have you seen my figure? I cannot cross a leaf without stopping for lunch!”

I understood his concern. Some of us feel equally breathless climbing stairs, and here was somebody promising him wings.

Yet inside that crawling creature are tiny groups of cells called imaginal discs, which will help form its adult wings and other structures. While the caterpillar sees another leaf to chew, nature is preparing it for the sky.

Which brings me to a gentleman hiding in a winepress.

Gideon was threshing wheat there because he feared the Midianites. Hardly the place where a recruitment officer would look for military leadership.

“Any brave men here?”

“Certainly! Try the next village!”

But the angel of the Lord appeared and said, “The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.” That is Judges 6:12.

Imagine Gideon looking behind him.

“Who? Has somebody else come into this winepress?”

God was addressing a frightened man, but He saw the courage that could emerge through faith and obedience.

We often introduce ourselves by our limitations.

“I am too shy.”

“I have failed before.”

“I cannot speak.”

“My schoolteacher said I would amount to nothing!”

And apparently that schoolteacher’s assessment has enjoyed greater authority in our lives than Almighty God’s.

Listen instead to Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

His workmanship! Not an unfortunate manufacturing defect quietly pushed through quality control.

God has purpose for what He has made.

And Psalm 139:16 says, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect.”

Before others could see a finished person, God already saw you.

But Gideon’s story did not end with a compliment in a hiding place. God told him in Judges 6:14, “Go in this thy might … have not I sent thee?”

There was a step to take.

The caterpillar must undergo transformation. Gideon had to leave his shelter. You and I must stop treating our fears as permanent residential addresses.

Link yourself to the One who calls you. Pray. Listen. Obey. Take that difficult first step.

Victory does not mean every examination will be passed, every business will prosper, or every illness disappear. It means those things cannot cancel who you are in Christ.

Romans 8:37 declares, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

Through Him. That is the connection.

“Still crawling?” somebody may ask.

“Yes,” you can answer, “but God is working in me.”

Dear reader, your winepress is not your destiny. Neither is the leaf on which you presently struggle.

God sees beyond your frightened reflection.

You are already a victor in His love. Now walk with Him until you begin to see what He sees.

And please, stop comparing tomorrow’s wings with today’s crawling legs..!