Last week I read the following story in the hall of an apartment complex.
‘The butterfly’
A man finds a cocoon of a butterfly and takes it home. One day a small opening appears in the cocoon. The man watches for a few hours how the butterfly struggles to work out through the small opening. It seems that the process no longer progresses.
It looks like the butterfly has come as far as it can and does not get any further. So the man decides to help the butterfly. He takes the scissors and cuts open the rest of the cocoon. The butterfly can now free itself.
But the butterfly has a swollen body and crumpled wings. The man expects the butterfly to spread its wings every moment and support the body. But that does not happen, the butterfly spends the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and crumpled wings. The butterfly is never able to fly.
What the man in his goodness did not understand was that the tight cocoon and the struggle needed to crawl through the opening was the way to pump the body fluid of the butterfly into the wings so that the butterfly would be ready to fly if it had reached the freedom coming out of the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in life. If we allowed ourselves to go through life under obstacles, we would be disabled. We would never be as strong as what we can be. We would never fly.
= Live your life without fear=
= Go beyond obstacles in the knowledge that you can overcome them=
Saturday I made the photo at the top of this column. The photo reminded me of the story of the butterfly. How many people are are damaged by life. They are a butterfly but cannot fly because they are damaged by circumstances. Maybe you are this person and you think ‘I will never be able to fly again, I have put the troubles far behind me, I have avoided them’. Yes, there was no way out for the butterfly. Fortunately, you can still learn to fly again.
Yesterday during the sermon I was reminded of the text in John 8:36: “If then the Son has set you free, you will be free indeed.” The Son, the Lord Jesus, can set you free, from the problems that prevent you from flying, that prevent you from being who you should be, that keep you in captivity. If you give Him your problems He will make you the person you should be, you will be like a butterfly that can fly and show its beautiful wings everywhere.