At a session with my grief counselor, I shared a new fascination with butterflies.
“You know the story of the butterfly, right?” Mary 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.
This session just got interesting.
Mary shared the story of the butterfly. As most of us learned in biology class, the butterfly starts as a caterpillar crawling on the ground. It builds a cocoon and then goes through the metamorphosis. What many people don’t realize 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 her wisdom. I knew in my heart God wanted me to remember this lesson, so I grabbed my small green notebook from my purse and got ready to take notes.
Mary continued. The butterfly has to struggle to get out of the cocoon. If someone tries to help the butterfly out early, it will never fly because it’s wings aren’t strong enough nor is its body slim enough to be airborne. The struggle to be freed from the cocoon is what makes the butterfly’s wings strong, and it helps transform its boy into a 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 allowing us to soar to new heights when we breakthrough.
“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 flashed back images to many times where I’d struggled in life. And let’s be honest – I wasn’t rejoicing much… more like impatience to move to the next phase. While incredibly painful to struggle through tough times, working through the struggles produced the most growth.
Just like the butterfly, without the struggle we could never fly. Don’t be afraid to struggle … you may be about to take flight.
