White Swans

I haven’t seen too many swans in my lifetime, but I’ve watched videos now and then that made me smile as I appreciated their majestic beauty.  Even now, I visualize them as God’s beautiful ballerinas, gliding across picture-perfect ponds like miniature angels moving peacefully with seemingly minimal effort.  What wonderful creations of God!

I became aware of the noticeable change that takes place as swans grow from gray, fluffy newborns—called cygnets—into beautiful adult swans.  Like their parents, they eventually become the beauty of waterways in nature while growing stronger and learning the art of survival in a prey-versus-predator environment.  From birth, they follow closely behind their father and mother, doing their very best to emulate them in every way.

A cygnet does not wake up one morning and suddenly become a swan.  The transformation takes place gradually as it grows, matures, and becomes what God created it to be.  What a beautiful picture of new birth, living life, growing stronger, and surviving enemy attacks.  It reminds me of God’s transforming power of grace and forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit transforms babes in Christ into beautiful creations.  We are born again by His grace, but then we spend our lives growing, learning, following, and becoming more like our Heavenly Father.  The change may not happen all at once, but as we surrender ourselves to Him, He patiently works within us, transforming what was once stained by sin into something beautiful for His glory.

People may not always see the transformation taking place within us, but they can see the evidence of it.  What was once gray and stained by sin can become renewed and washed clean—white as snow through the grace and forgiveness of God.

Christians follow their Father in every way they can and do their best to become more like Him.  Like a young cygnet staying close to its parents while learning how to live, we must stay close to our Heavenly Father.  The Holy Spirit leads, comforts, corrects, and teaches us how to withstand temptation while learning to recognize the deceptions of our enemy and how to live in victory.

Like baby swans, believers learn how to survive spiritually in the environment around us through the love, guidance, and direction of God the Father.  We grow healthy and strong—physically, mentally, and spiritually—as children of the Most High Creator.

We may not always recognize the transformation taking place within us, but God does.  He sees the finished creation while He is still working on us.  He knows what we will become even while we are still growing, learning, and being transformed by His grace.

One day, the gray, fluffy cygnet becomes the beautiful white swan gliding peacefully across the water.  In much the same way, God takes lives stained by sin and, through His grace, transforms them into something beautiful.  We follow our Father, learn from Him, grow stronger through His Spirit, and become more like Him.

We walk in His beauty.

Written by,

Papa Boyd