Caterpillar's Cocoon and Butterfly

Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it. The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat, and a stick to climb on, in the jar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.

One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened, a small hole appeared in the cocoon and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.

At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it had and it could go no further.

The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger and the butterfly quickly emerged!

As the butterfly came out the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink and the butterfly’s wings would expand. But neither happened!

The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly…

The boy’s good intentions hurt the butterfly. 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. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly.

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. In fact, it is the struggle that causes you to develop your ability to fly.


When I asked god for strength, he gave me difficult situations to face.
When I asked god for brain & brown, he gave me puzzles in life to solve.
When I asked god for happiness, he showed me some unhappy people.
When I asked god for wealth, he showed me how to work hard.
When I asked god for favors, he showed me opportunities to work hard.
When I asked god for peace, he showed me how to help others.
God gave me nothing I wanted; he gave me everything I needed.
: Swami Vivekananda