Butterflies
The butterfly is a symbol often associated with Easter. Each stage of the butterfly's life cycle represents a stage in the life of Christ. First, there is the caterpillar which stands for Christ's life on earth. The second is the cocoon stage significant of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Finally, the emergence of the beautiful butterfly represents Jesus Christ being raised from the dead in a glorified body.
The
Cocoon and the Butterfly
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 farther.
Then
the man decided to help the butterfly, so
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 was never 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 life. If God allowed us to go
through
our life without any obstacles, it would cripple
us. We would not be
as strong as what we could have been.
And we could never fly.
-Author Unknown-
