Written in the Wings

Every autumn, millions of Monarch butterflies rise from fields across North America and fly up to 3,000 miles south to a cluster of oyamel fir forests in the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico. What makes this staggering is that not one of them has ever made the trip before.

The generation that migrates is four or five generations removed from the butterflies that left Mexico the previous spring. Their parents and grandparents died along the way — in Texas wildflowers, in Midwestern meadows. Yet these newly hatched Monarchs find the exact same trees their ancestors used. Scientist Lincoln Brower, who spent decades studying their migration, called it one of nature's most profound mysteries.

Researchers have since discovered that Monarchs navigate using a time-compensated sun compass and Earth's magnetic field — a purpose literally encoded in their biology before they ever opened their wings.

This should encourage every soul wrestling with the question of purpose. You were not handed a blank slate and told to figure it out alone. God — the same Creator who designed every molecule in those fragile wings — has woven intention into your very nature. The Almighty formed you before you were born, knitting purpose into your inmost being.