One day while walking through the woods,
a man found a cocoon. He decided to
take the cocoon home
to watch its transformation
into a beautiful butterfly.
He gently placed it on
his table and watched
it for several days.
One day a small opening
appeared and the cocoon started to move.
The old man sat and watched it for several
hours as it struggled
and struggled to force
its body from the cocoon.
Then it seemed
to stop making any progress. It appeared
as if it had gotten as
far as it could and was
unable to go any farther. Finally, the old
man feeling sorry
for the cocooned butterfly,
decided to help
the butterfly. He took a pair
of scissors and snipped
off the remaining bit
of the cocoon.
The butterfly then easily emerged.
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 life.
If God allowed us to go through our
life without any obstacles, it would
only cripple us. We would not be as
strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.
~ Author Unknown ~
