[found the whole story]
[bold]Butterfly[/bold]
Once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a wonderful old
man who loved everything, animals, spiders, insects...
One day while walking through the woods the nice old man found a
cocoon. Feeling lonely, he decided to take the cocoon home to watch
its beautiful transformation from a funny little cocoon to a
beautiful butterfly. He gently placed the cocoon on this kitchen
table and watched over it for days.
Suddenly on the seventh day, the cocoon started to move. It moved
frantically! The old man felt sorry for the little butterfly inside
the cocoon. He watched it struggle and struggle and struggle.
Finally the old man feeling so sorry for the cocooned butterfly
rushed to its aide with a surgical scalpel and gently slit the
cocoon so the butterfly could emerge. Just once slice was all it
took and the butterfly broke free from it's cocoon only to wilt
over in a completely motionless state. The old man did not know
what to think. Had he accidentally killed the little butterfly? No,
it's still moving a little bit. May it's sick?
He was dumbfounded and quite perplexed. 'What should I do', he
said. Well he felt so sorry for the little creature that he decided
the best thing he could do for the butterfly was to place it gently
back into its cocoon. He did so, and placed a drop of honey on it
to seal the cocoon, leaving the butterfly to nestle in its natural
state.
Well the next day, he noticed that the cocoon was moving again.
'Wow', he said. It moved and moved and struggled and struggled.
Finally the butterfly broke free from its cocoon and stretched its
wings out far and wide. It's beautiful wings were filled with such
wonderful colours! It looked around and took off. It was flying. It
was so beautiful. The old man was jumping with joy.
And the wonderful butterfly flew and flew until it was almost out
of the old man's sight. But then he started to think. What did he
do wrong by trying to help that beautiful little butterfly out at
first?
The old man went into town. Found the library and read every book
he could on butterflies and cocoons. Finally the answer appeared.
The butterfly has to struggle and struggle while inside the cocoon.
That's how it gets its strength. That's just how they were designed
to overcome in order to be strong and beautiful.
Now he knows the reason why they do what they do. It was only his
perception that made it appear that the butterfly was having a hard
time. Well from then on, the old man knew that loving something
sometimes means to pray for it and cheer it on!
He realise that God is wonderful and that sometimes appearances
aren't what they seem to be. That we are all beautiful butterflies,
even though we have our apparent struggles in life...
8 "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your
ways," declares the Lord." 9 "Just as the heavens are higher than
the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts
are higher than your thoughts."
Isa 55:8-9
