The
Moth and the Cocoon
A man found a cocoon of an emperor moth. He took it home so that he could watch the moth come out of the cocoon. On the day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the moth for several hours as the moth 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 farther. It just seemed to be stuck. Then the man, in his kindness, decided to help the moth, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The moth then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small,
shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the moth 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 little moth 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 moth to get through the tiny opening were God's way of
forcing fluid from the body of the moth into its wings so that it would
be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Freedom
and flight would only come after the struggle. By depriving the moth of
a struggle, he deprived the moth of health.
Sometimes struggles are exactly
what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life
without any obstacles, He would cripple us. We would not be as strong
as what we could have been.
Submitted to the site by Joy Payton