Friday, December 12, 2008

A Butterfly Story

A man found the cocoon of a butterfly.One day a small opening appeared.He sat and watched the butterfly for several hoursas it struggled to force its bodythrough that little hole.Then it seemed to stop making any progress.It appeared as if it had gotten as faras it could and could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly.He took a pair of scissors andsnipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.The butterfly then emerged easily.But it had a swollen bodyand small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterflybecause he expected that, at any moment,the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to supportthe body, which would contract in time.Neither happened!In fact, the butterfly spentthe rest of its life crawling aroundwith a swollen body and shriveled wings.It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and hastedid not understand wasthat the restricting cocoon andthe struggle required for the butterflyto get through the tiny openingwere God's way of forcing fluidfrom the body of the butterfly into its wingsso that it would be ready for flightonce it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactlywhat we need in our life.If God allowed us to go through our lifewithout any obstacles,it would cripple us.We would not be as strongas we could have been.And we could never fly.So have a nice day...and struggle a little.