A BUTTERFLY'S STRUGGLE

A man found a butterfly's cocoon. There was a little hole in the cocoon and so he looked inside. He saw the butterfly's head start to push through the hole, but the hole was too small. The butterfly struggled and struggled to get out, but he couldn't. It was agonizing for him to watch the butterfly's painful struggle of trying to fit his body through the tiny opening. It seemed that the butterfly was trapped.

So the kind man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and carefully enlarged the opening in the cocoon and so the young butterfly came out easily. And the man smiled as he waited for the young butterfly to flutter off into the garden.But the butterfly wasn't happy. He stumbled along on the ground and then fell. He had a swollen body and small, shriveled up wings. The man kept waiting for the butterfly to rise up into the air, but tragically, the delicate butterfly spent its last few days in misery flopping around on the ground. He was never able to fly.

The man was so sad to see the butterfly die this way. The butterfly's wings never unfurled their beauty. The garden missed a beautiful fluttering creature of God's. Many flowers didn't receive the pollinating they needed.

What the man did not realize was that in his haste to release the butterfly from his painful struggle to get out of his cocoon, he had actually stunted his growth process. He thought he was being kind, but he had killed him.

The butterfly's struggle through the small opening was actually God's way of forcing fluid from his body to his wings. Yes, it was painful and tiring for the butterfly to work at freeing himself from the cocoon, but the struggle strengthened its delicate wings for flying.

It's the same for you and I. Growth is painful. There are no shortcuts in the spiritual life. Beautiful dreams from God take flight only through faith and struggle.