Beloved, We Need Struggles
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesAn unknown author writes “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 further.
“So the man decided to help the butterfly. 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 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 butterfly to get through the tiny opening were 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.”
Inspiration records that Paul was involved in “confirming the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Just as a butterfly must go through the struggle of freeing itself from the cocoon to be able to fly, so must Christians go through various struggles to fly heavenward.
Perhaps this will allow us to better understand the words of James, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when ye fall into manifold temptations; Knowing that the proving of your faith worketh patience. And let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). Beloved, we need struggles.