Be a 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 farther.
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 Nature'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!
Anonymous
Back to Selected Readings
|