When a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole.
When it seemed to stop making any progress and appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and
could go no farther
the man decided to help the butterfly.
So, 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 its 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 would never fly.
