Just through the red door lies a mystical place where live the little-known creatures, the ones the world looks upon as myth and legend.  In this realm, they live and breathe, just the same as you and I.  Journey with me through the red door, to the place of imagination and we will find a new dimension of reality.

The new day calls out with an invitation from those beyond the door.  It is they who wish to meet us and share their tales!

I hear Grandpa Ansel, a respected elder, greeting the new day, in his usual fashion.

“Hark noble ones of the realm!”

As I crossed the threshold of the red door to Rehoboth, it was not Grandpa Ansel I saw upon his favored log perch, but Uncle Gunder.  Young Aved, who had become his constant companion, earnestly stared up into his face.

Uncle Gunder’s leg was still in its splint and his lameness had not much improved.  I heard Uncle Gunder complain about how long his leg was taking to heal and how badly he desired to return to his hill-country solitude.   Never one to talk much, he found Aved’s devotion trying.  It was hard to be alone in the heart of Rehoboth and Aved had taken it upon herself to keep the elderly gnome company.  Her best efforts to distract and cheer up Uncle Gunder fell short most days.

“There’s no need to rush back to your home, Uncle Gunder.  We have plenty of food here and Grandpa Ansel’s house is very fine.  Don’t you like being here with all of us? Aved asked.

“All true, Aved, but this isn’t my home,” answered Uncle Gunder.

“It used to be your home.  It could easily be your home again.  I can’t imagine why you would have ever wanted to leave.”

“I never fit in here.  I’m not made for tilling the ground and planting seeds.  I wanted adventure and excitement.  Nothing ever changes here, and I was not cut out for gardening,” Gunder explained.

“Did you find your adventure, then?” Aved asked.

“Aye.  From the day I set out to the day that polecat ambushed me, my life has been one of adventure.  The very act of learning to live on my own, away from this domesticity, has created the adventure.  I had to learn new ways, build a different kind of house, forage for my food and live by my senses.  For me, learning is adventure, and I have learned much,” answered Gunder.

“Is there still more for you to learn?”

“Yes.  We must never stop learning.”

“Have you been learning while you are here with us?” she asked.

“I think I am relearning old things, long past,” Uncle Gunder answered.

“Like what, Uncle Gunder?”

“Oh, things like long conversations with young, and sometimes inquisitive, girl gnomes,” he answered, with a wink.  “Things like keeping my guest chamber in Grandpa and Grandma’s house tidy and proper.  I am relearning how to live in community, as a member.  All of these have become foreign to me over the last couple of centuries.  It all feels quite uncomfortable.”

Grandpa Ansel materialized at that moment and asked, “What feels uncomfortable, Gunder?’

“Uncle Gunder says he isn’t comfortable here with all of us,” Aved answered before Gunder could utter a sound.

“Nonsense,” declared Grandpa Ansel.  “We have not changed.  In his time away from us, it is Gunder who has changed.”

“Who has changed?” Svend asked, plopping himself on the ground.  He was joined by the whole garden crew who settled in quickly, for a story.

“Why are all of you talking about me like I am not here?” Gunder asked.

“Draw near dear ones.  Gather close and hear the wisdom of age, for you are just beginning and have much to learn,” Grandpa began.  “Change is a fact of life and none of us remain the same.  Some change comes just from growing up.  Some experiences change us, as we learn through the experiences.  Some change comes through growing old.  I know it is hard for you to believe, but Uncle Gunder and myself were once young, like all of you are now.  We learned the skills you are now learning.  We have lived long and changed much.  There is a great deal in Uncle Gunder that I do not recognize from our youth and I am quite sure he could say the same of me.”

“Like the monarch butterfly you see just over there,” Grandpa said, pointing to his right, “we each go through metamorphosis.”

“What does meta . . . , meta . . ……..  That big word.  What does it mean?” asked Svend.

“Simply put, it means change.  More specifically, it means to transform.  Where once Gunder and I were children, time and experience have transformed us into adults who are now old adults.  It is a process whereby we change.  At times, it can be uncomfortable or difficult.  In our own little world, we are cocooned and in the cocoon of time and experience, we learn and develop.  Our character forms, we build skills, and we emerge from that particular time and space different than we were at the beginning.

Take Uncle Gunder here.  We began very similarly.  We shared the same time continuum, but had vastly different experiences, by choice.  We did both transform, but into gnomes that are very different from each other.

The monarch begins as a larva, which spins a cocoon.  Within that cocoon, the larva undergoes dramatic change and at the appointed time, it is not a larva that comes out of that cocoon, but a magnificent butterfly.

So it is with each of us.  We all begin as gnome infants, but time and the environment we live in, act like a cocoon.  At the appointed time, we emerge quite a different creature from the infant gnome.  The journey is different for each and no one else can make your particular journey.  It is through your journey that you undergo metamorphosis. 

Uncle Gunder and I each had different journeys, and we emerged quite the different butterflies!  Different from each other and different from anyone else in Rehoboth, but we have grown to be magnificent ‘butterflies’, none the less!” exclaimed Grandpa Ansel, with a nod to his brother.

Reference:

Romans 12:2 (Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.)