The 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 farther. 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 would 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 it freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly.

(Author: Unknown to Me)

PAGE DEDICATION

TO

STEVE and MICHAEL

Thank you for sending this to me

From the Heart of Angel45_2B

I have had this story for a while now and have finally gotten everything together to put it on a web page. And as I was typing the last paragraph it finally hit me. Recently I was asked if I thought that I would be where I am today if I had not gone through a lot of struggles in my own life. I answered no I would probably not be as strong as I am today if life had been easy for me. And like the butterfly that is able to get out of the cocoon on its own, I too will shed this cocoon and fly. And I will soar with the eagles.

Copyrighted © November 28,1998 by Angel45_2B

All rights reserved

SONG TITLE

"Elusive Butterfly"