Posted by TerryS (24.24.79.72) on September 20, 2000 at 08:45:58:
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 further.
So 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 it's
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 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!
Remember...what we struggle with makes us strong!