The Crippled Butterfly -submitted by Dr Earl Reum
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 it's 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. He continued to watch the butterfly, because he expected
that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand 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 was never able to fly.
What he had done in his well intentioned kindness and haste, what he did not
understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required to get
through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of
the butterfly into it's wings so that it would be ready for flight once it
achieved it's 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 we could have been.
And we could never fly.
Have a great day, a great life, struggle a little if you need to....
Then fly!