“Happy
are those who remain faithful under fire; their reward will be eternal life."
~ James 1:12
Six year old Katy was full of life, energy, and curiosity. So it wasn’t unusual at all that she found a
caterpillar and wanted to keep it. “Pleeeaze Mommmy, Pleeeaze?” she begged.
Mom saw a great opportunity to teach her young daughter
about the butterfly’s lifecycle. So she gently
placed the worm-like insect into a large jar.
Katy gathered fresh plants to eat and a stick for climbing. To Katy’s enjoyment, it (known now ‘Callie’)
grew rapidly. So fast, that it
constantly shed its skin, a process Mom called “molting.”
One day Callie climbed up the stick and started acting weird.
Fearing the worst, Katy immediately
summoned her mother. “Do you think we
should take Callie to emergency care?” she asked.
Katy watched every day, waiting eagerly for the butterfly to
emerge. One day a small hole appeared in
the cocoon and the butterfly started struggling to break out. Callie looked desperate; like she wasn’t
making any progress!
So Katy decided to help.
She took a small scissors and made the hole larger. A butterfly quickly emerged, its wings damp
and folded against her body.
She continued to watch it, expecting that any minute Callie’s
wings would expand and she’d take flight.
Didn’t happen! In fact Callie
would never fly, spending the rest of her shortened life crawling around with a
swollen body and shriveled wings.
A prime teaching moment.
Before a butterfly can emerge from its chrysalis, it must
struggle. Each time it lunges to escape,
acids are being removed from its wings.
When Katy innocently broke the chrysalis open, the butterfly began dying
from those acids.
In essence, struggle is necessary for a butterfly’s
survival. Then in the quiet, when its battle has ended, the butterfly can come
out and share its beauty with the world.
We humans aren’t that different. Sometimes we need to struggle, to rid
ourselves of the acids that make up anger, fear and sadness.
It’s even harder watching someone we love struggle. It could be a spouse competing in the
workplace, a child wrestling with schoolwork, a friend crippled by a painful
divorce, or a family member battling an incurable disease.
While it is instinctive to want to help (and we often do by
giving unsolicited advice), sometimes we must learn to wait; let the process
unfold on its own. If you, or someone
you know, is battling to shed their cocoon, keep in mind, true love may require
that you allow them to struggle for a season, to gain strength to become that
beautiful butterfly.
Lord of creatures big and small, just as a
caterpillar struggles to free itself from the cocoon to become a butterfly, teach
us that prayer through struggle frees the soul, mind and spirit to Your divine
presence and love. Amen
