Lock-Down, Day 19 - All in good Time

Today, sitting here at my desk and watching the rain pour down, I am thinking about the situation in which the whole world is finding themselves.  We are all experiencing the effect of the Covid-19 disease in one form or another.  Many countries around the globe are in Lock-Down. We are all worried and wondering when this will all be over.  Many people are so fed-up with the situation that  they even disobey the rules and ignore the laws regarding the lock-down.  And, although  I think that their behaviour is selfish, I can also understand their actions.  This reminded me of a story I have been told a very long time ago.  I would like to share it with you.

A little boy was walking along and in the veld he found a cocoon. He picked it up and noticed that on the inside there was a butterfly struggling to come out. He immediately took out his pocket knife and cut the cocoon open. Very proud of himself, he helped the butterfly out and placed it on the nearest flower. However, instead of spreading its wings to fly off, it fluttered weakly for a few moments and then fell over and died. Dismayed the little boy ran home and told his father about the incident. The father explained to the little boy that the butterfly needed to struggle its own way out of the cocoon in order to grow its wings strong enough to survive. When the time was right, it would have emerged from the cocoon, delicate yet strong. 

This story makes me think of us. We are in a difficult situation, we are waiting for a miracle, a cure. Many are fighting against the bonds which bind them and want to break free before the time is right. Some want to just give up,but it is in the struggle, in overcoming, that our strength lies. We just have to be patient, one day at a time. The butterfly is exquisitely and perfectly created by God, and the inborn struggle it has to go through is also part of God's perfect plan, it serves a divine purpose. When the time is right, God's plan will reveal itself to us, and looking back we will all be able to see how it all worked together to complete the picture. Without that time spend in the cocoon, the struggle towards freedom, the caterpillar would forever stay just that, a caterpillar. In Jer. 29: 11 the Lord promises that He has plans for us, plans that we may prosper, not plans to harm us, but when the time is right, His perfect time......

So, Dearheart, just hang in there, this too shall pass, and we will be stronger for it.