Butterfly

If you have spent much time on this planet, you have probably had the opportunity to really care for someone, so you know how difficult it can be when the people we love make decisions that are harmful to them. You probably also know how challenging it can be to pray for another's protection, and the one that is presenting the greatest threat to them, is their own self. This caring can take a lot out of us! In order to maintain our own health, it becomes necessary to practice letting go. Below is a an example of why sometimes it's necessary to "live and let live" even when we think we have anothers best interest in mind.

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 further.

So 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 o 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 lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!