The making of a butterfly

Kaniya

Butterflies are often used as a symbolic expression to denote change, metamorphosis or transformation.

It’s thrilling to see how a simple caterpillar transforms into a beautiful butterfly through different stages. A butterfly that is unique and marvellous to look at. They have beautiful brightly coloured patterns on their wings, they suck the nectar from pretty flowers and help in pollination.

Be trilled to know the story of a sweet little girl who’ll one day become this beautiful butterfly.

Her name is Kaniya, (name changed) she’s currently 15 years old. She was born in Bihar.

Kaniya was rescued from the streets of Delhi in the beginning of this year and brought to the Rescue home.

As we got to know her slowly, she started to share about her life, her whereabouts to us.

She’s the third daughter of her parents.

Her mother passed away due to a snake bite when she was very young. Her father was not keen on raising her as he raised her other two older siblings.

Kaniya can’t talk properly. She stammers, it takes her more time to put across what she’s trying to say than other normal speaking children.

She was raised by her father’s elder sister and her husband. From a very young age, Kaniya was trained in doing household chores as well as cooking. She can single-handedly handle an entire family. Always the one that she longed for was never given to her. And that thing was love.

Kaniya ran away from her home, before she could fall as a prey to the traffickers, we rescued her. Upon reaching here, she quickly got adjusted to the Rescue home’s routine and started helping out in the chores.

For her, the way to please people and to be safe is to finish all the chores.

She’ll quickly and neatly do all the chores that were assigned to her.

When she observed how the caretakers of the Rescue home interacted with her, she began to realize that she had missed affection all along.

She had missed tender loving care and warmth of relationships in her life.

At first her behavior was no less than that of a bully.

She scolded the children, beat them sometimes, wouldn’t sit properly and sometimes she would not listen .

Slowly she changed. The more she received love, the more she gave. The more she received patience, the more she began to be softer with the other children. The more we waited on her, the more she bloomed. She doesn’t do chores just to be in our good-books.

Rather she now does it, because she’s happy.

Not all days are happy though. She still has difficult days where she misses her mother.

Those emotions cripple her. Ignites emotions of anger and grief.

But she’s aware of these triggers and does not disown them.

She’ll let us know when she’s feeling lonely and sits with us that day.

Her real name means fragrance. There are times when someone else is feeling low, Kaniya will sit next to them. She doesn’t do or talk much. But she’ll say a few things that’ll lift up the spirit of the person who’s feeling low. True to her name, she spreads fragrance around. 

When one looks at the caterpillar, we can’t fathom that the caterpillar will turn into a butterfly but because we know it has happened before, we sure trust the process.

Similarly, looking at Kaniya, one will stop and think for a minute if this is the same girl who used to bully but today she’s one of the few girls who have a tender heart. She’s good at stitching, cooking and would willingly help anyone with anything that they need.

She has a smile that can light up anyone’s face.

God has done a wonderful thing and it’s marvellous for all of us.

Kaniya loves to spend time alone. In her quiet times, she’ll read the Bible.

There are times when she says she doesn’t feel like praying but she knows that God is with her.

May she be strengthened more and more in the love of Christ.

May she continue to look for hope and love in Christ alone.