Hi Friends,

I want to share a story from when I was a little girl. It's funny how we can reflect on things as adults and see a deeper meaning. Let me know if this resonates with you.🦋

I remember when my parents were building our family home in the British Virgin Islands. I was probably nine or ten years old at the time. That was when I first met the architect who came to our home with a big tube of paper. In it were the plans for our future home.

He would roll the papers out onto the kitchen table, and there'd be layers and layers and layers of plans. Actual blueprint drawings, on huge pieces of paper. They were all stacked one on top of each other, and my favorite ones to look at were the elevations. These were in color, and you could see what the final house was going to look like from the side, from the front, even from the roof.

But then, as I went past those elevations, I saw other drawings that I didn't really understand. There were lines and symbols and figures, and none of it really made sense, but layer after layer of paper had these lines and symbols and figures on them.

The architect explained to me that these were the different stages or layers of the overall blueprint for the house. Each of those pages of paper had to be constructed precisely so that the house would look like the final color drawing he had in the pictures.

Layers and layers of plans.

When I think about the verse Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a hope and a future," I never really centered in on that word...

"Plans."

It's a plural.

Just like the blueprints that were needed to build my family’s home, the plans that God has for each of us are multilayered.

The destiny that the Ultimate Architect has designed for each of us cannot be built in one fell swoop. We have to go layer by layer, completing one transformation after another, to manifest our unique destiny.

If you're going through a layer of your blueprint right now and you don't yet see what the final elevation will look like, trust that the Ultimate Architect has already designed the plans, and it's going to be beautiful.

Remain faithful.

Continue to listen, trust, and obey what you're being called and asked to do, and soon enough you'll emerge as the butterfly required to manifest that particular layer of your blueprint.

Then you'll move on to the next layer.

I hope this encourages you wherever you are in your blueprint and butterfly journey.

If you know someone else who may need to hear this, please share it with them.

I'll reach back out soon. 🦋

Stephanie G. Vanterpool, MD, MBA​
Physician • Educator • Researcher • Writer
Founder, Blueprints & Butterflies​

P.S. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Every reflection continues as a conversation on Substack.

🦋 Join the conversation:https://substack.com/@svanterpoolmd​