One day a small opening appeared on a cocoon,a man sat
and watched for 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 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 could
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 we go through our life without any obstacles, it would
cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could
have been. We could never fly.
