Struggling to Fly
August 9, 2015
In the midst of our grief when Jenson passed away, something new started showing up constantly. Butterflies. I’d never really paid much attention to butterflies before the rainstorm of crushing grief saturated our life. But they started to become a theme even a mom knee deep in grief couldn’t ignore.
One day as I was working through the grief with my counselor Mary, I shared with her my new found fascination with butterflies.
“Well you know the story of the butterfly right?” she asked.
“I know they start as caterpillars and then build cocoons and are transformed into butterflies, is that what you mean?” I asked curiously.
“No, I mean the story of the butterfly and how it gets strong enough to fly,” she responded.
Now this session just got interesting.
Mary would go on to share the story of the butterfly. Most of us learned in biology class the butterfly starts as a caterpillar crawling on the ground, builds a cocoon and then goes through the metamorphosis. But what many people don’t know is to emerge from the cocoon, the butterfly has to go through the struggle.
“The struggle? Say more,” I listened intently as Mary continued to share. I knew in my heart God wanted me to hear something on this lesson so grabbed my small pink notebook out of my purse ready to take notes.
Mary continued with the story of the butterfly. The butterfly has to struggle to get out of the cocoon. In fact, if someone tries to help the butterfly out early, it will never fly because it’s wings aren’t strong enough and it’s body isn’t slim enough to be airborne. The struggle to be freed from the cocoon is what makes the butterfly’s wings strong and helps it’s body transform into it’s new shape. Without the struggle, it could never fly.
Tears flooded over me. Without the struggle, it could never fly. The struggle (which often seems like pain without purpose) is the very thing that once we break through allows us to soar to new heights.
“But we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope …” Romans 5:3
In that moment, I thought back to so many times in life where I’d struggled. And let’s be honest – I wasn’t doing much rejoicing. More like impatience to move to the next phase. But while incredibly painful to struggle through tough times, working through the struggles was the very thing that produced the most growth.
You see just like the butterfly, without the struggle we could never fly. So don’t be afraid to struggle … you may be about to take flight.
Your story is very inspiring and one I will pass along to other strugglers. Love and prayers.
Helen Musgrave