The Butterfly

A man found a cocoon for 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 the little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had
gotten as far as it could and could go no farther. Then the man decided to
help the butterfly.

He took a pair of scissors and snipped the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.

Something was strange. The butterfly had a swollen body and shriveled
wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected 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 deformed wings. It was never 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 small opening of the cocoon are 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 life.

If God allowed us to go through all our life without any obstacles, that
would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

Not only that, we could never fly.

Just like a butterfly must struggle to get released from the cocoon and then fly, we also must struggle to become who we are to be. Sometimes we want God to take the struggle out of our lives and remove the obstacles from our ways. But just like the man made the butterfly crippled, we also might become crippled in our lives. God does not remove all the obstacles and difficulties from our lives. He promises to be with us in times of difficulties and use them to strengthen us, make us better and stronger.