[Faith-talk] Cocoon

[Paul Smith]

Hello my cyber readers.  Hope that your day is going well, by God's 
matchless grace and His providential care.

You probably know the story of how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, 
but maybe you've not read or heard the following scenario:

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 the man decided 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 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 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!

I asked for Strength and God gave me Difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom and God gave me Problems to Solve.

I asked for prosperity and God gave me Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage and God gave me Danger to overcome.

I asked for Love and God gave me Troubled People to help.

I asked for Favors and God gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted; I received everything I needed!

Mak God bless you with unspeakable joy, not only in the world to come, 
but in this world also.  May your path be bright and full of light 
everywhere you go.  May God tell darkness that it must flee at your 
command.  And, I pray your feet will never stumble out of God's plan.  
May the desires of your heart come true, and may you experience peace 
in everything you do.  May Goodness, Kindness, and Mercy come your way. 
And, may you gain Wisdom and grow in the Lord every day.

And there you have today's uplifting contribution which will be aired 
next week, Lord willing, on the Radio Reading Network of Maryland.  
Hope you enjoyed it.

And that will do for today.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing the next 
message from the Museum of the Bible will be presented, may the God of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and 
collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian 
friend and brother, Paul