Struggles

 

STRUGGLES

      This beautiful Monarch butterfly was enjoying nectar from a brilliant orange flower in New Bern, North Carolina, some years ago.  Butterflies offer us many spiritual messages and here's one I want to share today.

      A man was walking in the woods and saw a cocoon hanging from a tree.  He took the cocoon home with him, set it on a table and watched as the gauzy, whitish gray oblong shook and bounced across the surface, struggling to free itself.  After awhile, the cocoon lay still for a moment.  The man felt sorry for the little creature and wanted to help it emerge from its confining covering, so he carefully snipped it with scissors to free the insect.

     Sadly, when the butterfly emerged, it had a swollen body and small wings, only able to walk on wobbly legs.  You see, the struggle required to free the butterfly from its cocoon was what it needed to force fluid into its wings and cause them to fully form. 

     Struggle was what the butterfly needed to make it strong enough to fly.  The same is true for us.  Struggle makes us stronger.  If God allowed us to go through life without any obstacles and struggle, it would only cripple us.  We would not be as strong as what we could have been - and we could never fly.

     There's a beautiful song by Laura Story that speaks of struggle and difficulty that often result in precious blessing.  Here are lyrics from the end of the song:

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments - Or the aching(s) of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy

And what if trials of this life --

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights --  are Your mercies in disguise.

     Adding another layer of truth to this 'object lesson,' I recently read in Sarah Young's Jesus Calling, these words that Jesus might speak to us:  "I know everything about you, far more than you know of yourself.  But I restrain My yearning to 'fix' you,' waiting instead for you to come to Me for help.  Imagine the divine restraint this requires, for I have all power in heaven and on earth."

     We might say that's sorta like the man if he had restrained himself from snipping the cocoon, even though it bothered him to see the butterfly struggle, because he knew it needed the struggle to grow strong and fly.

     But, in the case of Jesus our Lord and Creator, it goes much deeper than that.  Jesus feels our pain as we struggle and sorrow in life.  "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses..." Hebrews 4:15.  Remember when He saw the pain felt by the mourners after Lazarus' death, "Jesus wept," John 11:35.  And yet, in His great wisdom, He retrains Himself from reaching down and removing that struggle from our lives.

     Not only does He feel our pain, but as scripture points out, He knows everything we are feeling and thinking, and He understands far better than we ourselves do, just what it will take for our attitudes to shift and our understanding be awakened and the muscles of our mind, spirit and body become stronger.  What does it take for you and I to become true overcomers in the power of the Lord?  I don't fully know, but Jesus knows every atom in our being and He loves us so much, He wants what is best for us.  Sometimes, that 'best' requires a good bit of struggle to evolve into who God wants us to be.

    It all comes down to these two verses that have been used over and over, and offer us the best way to live in this world:  "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths," Proverbs 3:5-6.

    As we struggle out of the last remnants of one of our cocoons of difficulty, I can just imagine Jesus smiling, saying, "Fly, my child!  Fly!"