*Life's Struggles*

     One day a man found the cocoon of a butterfly, with a small opening just starting to appear. So, he sat down to watch as the butterfly struggled for several hours to force its body through the hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared to the man that it had gotten as far as it could.

     Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped 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, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and the body would contract, so it could fly -- but neither happened. Sadly, the butterfly spent the rest of it's life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It was never able to fly, or be a truly beautiful butterfly.

     What the man in his well meaning kindness and haste did not understand, was that the restricting cocoon, and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, was 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 got out of the cocoon.

     Sometimes, like the butterfly, the struggles we go through in life are necessary, although we usually don't understand why. If God allowed us to go through life without any obstacles, it could hurt our growth. Then we would not be as strong as we should be -- and it could keep us from soaring to the wonderful heights that HE has planned for you and me.

     Addendum -- Hebrews 12:11 (NIV) "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."