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 squeeze its body through the tiny hole. Then it stopped, as if it couldn’t go further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bits of cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily but it had a swollen body and shrivelled wings.
The man continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body, Neither happened. In fact the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around.
It was never able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand: The restricting cocoon and the struggle required by the butterfly to get through the opening was a way of forcing the fluid from the body into the wings so that it would be ready for flight once that was achieved.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. Going through life with no obstacles would cripple us. We will not be as strong as we could have been and we would never fly.
This week, may God show you that your struggle is your path to strength. May you overcome your obstacles, beat your wings and may you learn to fly.
Nature
A butterfly went out at noon
And waltzed above a stream,
Then stepped straight through the firmament
And rested on a beam;
The butterfly then bore away
Upon a shining sea,—
Though never yet, in any port,
Its coming mentioned be.
If spoken by the distant bird,
If met in ether sea
By frigate or by merchantman,
Report was not to me.
– Emily Dickenson
Poetry in Motion 