The Butterfly Club is an exclusive organization. Membership is by invitation only and members recognize each other by a secret sign. Membership brings prestige and insures elevated social status. None of us could qualify since membership is limited to 5-year-old little girls in a kindergarten in Bronxville, New York. I learned of this prestigious organization this weekend from my card-carrying member of the Butterfly Club granddaughter. She was very reluctant to speak about it and definitely would not reveal to me the secret sign.
I am fascinated by this very early display of the human need to be somebody special. We hunger for recognition and unfortunately most often it comes at the expense of another. Everybody loves a winner and brushes aside the loser even if it is by one point or one vote. Who remembers the name of the first runner in the Miss America pageant? Most likely just her family.
How grand it would be if we could gain our sense of worth by what we were able to do to elevate another. In Romans 12:10 Paul writes, “Honor one another above yourselves.” It sounds so nice to say, but how do you control that inner pang of pain when someone else wins something you wanted so badly? I could say, “Pray about it.” But that seems like the copout answer we use when we don’t know anything else to say. Perhaps it is something that comes with the assurance we are somebody important. And how do we know that? Surely the only way is to be reassured we are God’s children. That makes us royalty.
Written by Roger Bothwell on September 29, 2003
Spring of Life, 151 Old Farm Rd. Leominster, MA 01453