Within a week, sure enough one of the caterpillars started
turning this brown ugly looking color and Mashell was certain it was probably dying. Shortly after the discoloration of the one she
noticed the second one had made a beautiful pale green cocoon around itself.
After a week she wonderfully witnessed the brown ugly cocoon
starting to break open. The struggle to
break free was apparent and to her surprise a big beautiful butterfly
appeared. Her and her daughter watched
it for a short time inside the small jar and then decided to set it free. She placed it on a branch outside their home
where it stood for quite some time before it took flight.
Because Mashell has such a sweet heart, she gave us the jar
with the second cocoon in hopes that we could also witness the wonderful
transformation that they had.
That was two weeks ago and the jar still sits by my kitchen
sink with the green cocoon still clinging to the wilted and dead branch within.
I peak at it daily wondering if it will ever break free. I have considered opening the jar and cracking
the cocoon oh so slightly hoping to give that struggling butterfly a head start
to its new life. I am just that
impatient that I would do such a thing.
Then I remembered a story I was once told of someone who
watched a moth go through the struggle to free itself. In an effort to help she snipped the shell of
the cocoon. Soon the moth came out with
its wings all crimped and shriveled. But
as the person watched, the wings remained weak.
The moth, which in a few moments would have stretched those wings to
fly, was now doomed to crawling out its brief life in frustration of ever being
the beautiful creature Heavenly Father created it to be.
What the person in the story did not realize was that the
struggle to emerge from the cocoon was an essential part of developing the
muscle system of the moth’s body and pushing the body fluids out into the wings
to expand them. By unwisely seeking to
cut short the moth’s struggle, the watcher had actually crippled the moth and
doomed its existence.
The adversities of life are much like the cocoons of the
moth and butterflies. Heavenly Father uses
them to develop the spiritual “muscle system” of our lives.
There is a quote that goes something like this: “The testing of your faith through trials of
many kinds develops perseverance and perseverance leads to maturity of our
character.”
We may think we have true Christian love until someone offends
us or treats us unjustly. Then we begin
to feel anger and resentment build up within us. We may conclude we have learned about genuine
joy until our lives are shattered by an unexpected event or
disappointment. Adversities spoil our
peace and try our patience. Heavenly
Father uses those difficulties to reveal to us our need to grow, so that we
will reach out to Him to change us more and more into the likeness of His Son.
However, we have a tendency to shrink from adversity. To use the terms from the moth story, we want
Heavenly Father to snip the cocoon of adversity we often find ourselves in and
release us. But just as Heavenly Father
has more wisdom and love for the moth than it’s viewer did, so He has more
wisdom and love for us than we do for ourselves. He will not remove the adversity until we
have profited from it and developed in whatever way He intended in bringing or
allowing it into our lives.
Our life is intended to be one of continuous growth. We all want to grow, but we often resist the
process. This is because we tend to
focus on the events of adversity themselves, rather than looking with faith
beyond the events to what Heavenly Father is doing in our lives.
Heavenly Father cannot fail in His purpose for adversity in
our lives. He will accomplish that which
He intends. Those truths bring great
encouragement to me. Most times I do
fail to respond positively to difficulties.
Yet, I know my failure does not mean Heavenly Father has failed. By admitting my failure, He is helping me
grow in humility. That may have been His
intentions all along.
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