The Story of the Butterfly

By Sue Blackwell

A small story that tells a great tale...

“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.

Then 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 this 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 nature’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.”

In life we all go through hardships, but we don't always see the bigger picture when we're in the midst of one. We find ourselves stuck in our situation, stuck in our cocoon and we try desperately to get ourselves out, but for some reason we stay right where we are and we ask ourselves the questions: "Why is this happening to me?" and "When will this struggle be over?" 

But just like the man who wanted to help the butterfly, we need to understand that we need time to grow, time to develop. And in order to do that, God gives us trials and hardships. He gives us those trials to teach us something. We need those trials in order to attain new qualities. Abilities to be able to cope with what else life will bring us. 

When we are feeling stuck in our cocoon it's important for us to realize that we're going through this process and that we need to remain patient. That we need to keep struggling, suffering and striving to develop, to grow. 

When we are feeling stuck in our cocoon we should realize we are not being broken, we are being remade. 

When we are feeling stuck in our cocoon, we shouldn't despair, we shouldn't lose hope. We shouldn't want to rush things and cut ourselves out of it when we are not ready to move on. We should instead remain hopeful that are wings are growing and that it's just a matter of time before we'll be able to fly. And fly we will, fly we will...