The Birth of a Butterfly

It is very difficult to watch the circumstances of life create pain for the ones you love. All of us experience life’s pain in one form or another, but when the only casualty is ‘you’ it is much easier to swallow.

I am in a melancholy mood tonight because I am watching helpless, as one of my children faces down another demon that life has brought to him. I feel powerless to intervene and help, in fact even if I wanted to I cannot, his circumstances are outside of my control. His pain is my pain… I wonder if God feels a similar emotion when He watches us face challenges. My wife and I pour ourselves into our children; they are the breath of life for us. We give God his rightful place in our lives, but aside from that our children are everything to us.

I am mindful of the story of a child watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon. The child wanted to help the butterfly become free of the tomb it was trying to escape, and hated to watch it struggle so much. So he proceeded to cut open the cocoon and free the butterfly. After emerging from its prison the butterfly went on to wallow and flounder on the ground with its pitiful shriveled wings until it eventually died. Puzzled and saddened the boy went to his father to have him explain what happened. His father told him that even though it seemed painful and very difficult for the butterfly to fight his way out of the cocoon, this was also the process that God had designed to strengthen and inflate the butterfly’ wings, so that he would be strong enough to fly when it emerged. The struggle to extract itself from the cocoon strengthened the butterfly muscles and forced blood into its wings to inflate them and cause them to become firm enough to support its weight in flight. When he cut the cocoon open it circumvented this process and did not allow the former caterpillar the opportunity to grow strong enough to face its new life as a butterfly.

I know that most of the struggles my children face are a necessary part of life, designed to help them transition into adulthood, but it doesn’t make it any easier or less painful to watch them work their way through it.

I take comfort in the fact that they were Gods children before they became mine, and He loves and cares for them just as He does me.

I stand on the promise that:

Psalm 145:20 The LORD watches over all who love him…

And that He has already fore ordained, the events to take place in our lives and is very much aware our circumstances.

Luke 12:7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear…

And because He is aware of our circumstances and because He is watching out for us He tells us not to worry about our life.

Luke 12:22 Do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on.

I will take comfort in these and the many other promises He has made to us, His children… and rely upon Him for strength and wisdom as He and I watch them grow.

He never said it would be easy… He only said it would be worth it.