The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.



So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.



What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!

The struggles and hardships that we have endured have made us what we are today. We are where we need to be at this point in our lives so that we can move forward with ease.

Like the bird that learned to fly with a broken wing. The bird learned to do what was thought to be impossible. The courage that brought us through all the trials and tribulations of the past is the same courage that will push us toward our victorious life ahead. We are victors not victims.

One day, my Mom was outside in the yard feeling down after the death of my Dad. Butterflies flutter around her garden all the time.

This one day a butterfly attacked her and tried to keep her from going through the path that she had chosen. She laughed because she was so much larger than a little butterfly.

She started back on the path and again, the butterfly attacked her chest to keep her from her path. This time she took a step backward to see why this butterfly would attempt to do such a feat. Then she notice that another butterfly laid in the path where she would have walked.

The butterfly on the ground was apparently injured and the other butterfly was trying to muster all the courage to give the other butterfly precious moments of life. Mom changed her course.

A few days later, Mom saw two butterflies fluttering around her. I don't know if it was the same butterflies or not. What matters is that she learned to have butterfly courage to go on through a difficult struggle and those butterflies taught her that life is too short not to enjoy each precious moment. Out of our struggles comes new life!