Once upon a time in a land far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved all God's creatures. 

Animals, spiders, insects....

One day while walking through the woods the nice old man found a cocoon. 

Feeling lonely he decided to take the cocoon home to watch its beautiful transformation from
a funny little cocoon to a beautiful butterfly.

He gently placed the cocoon on his kitchen 
table, and watched over it for days

Suddenly on the seventh day the cocoon started to move. 

It moved frantically! 

The old man felt sorry for the little butterfly inside the cocoon. 

He watched it struggle and struggle! 

Finally the old man, feeling so sorry for the cocooned butterfly, rushed to its aide with a surgical scalpel and gently slit the cocoon so the butterfly could emerge. 

Just one slice was all it took, and the butterfly broke free from its cocoon only to wilt over in a  completely motionless state. 

The old man did not know what to think.

Had he accidentally killed the little butterfly?

No, it was still moving a little bit! 

Maybe it's sick! 

Who the heck would know?

He was dumbfounded, and quite perplexed!

"What should I do?", he said.

He felt so sorry for the little creature that he decided the best thing he could do for the butterfly was to place it gently back into its cocoon. 

He did so, and placed a drop of honey on it 
to seal the cocoon, leaving the butterfly to nestle back to it's natural state. 

The next day he noticed that the cocoon was 
moving again.  Wow, he said! 

It moved and moved and struggled and struggled.

Finally, the butterfly broke free from its cocoon and stretched its wings out far and wide.

Big time yawn! It's beautiful wings were filled with wonderful colors! 

It looked around and took off! 

It was flying! It was beautiful! 

The old man was jumping with joy! Wow! 

Go Baby, Go!

And that wonderful butterfly did that just that, 
it flew and flew till it was almost out of the old mans sight. 

What a joy, he exclaimed!

But then he started to think. 

What did I do wrong by trying  to help that 
beautiful little butterfly out at first? 

The old man went into the town library, and read every book he could on butterflies and cocoons. 

Finally the answer appeared.

The butterfly has to struggle while inside the cocoon.

That's how it gets its strength. 

That's just how they are designed in order to become strong and beautiful.

Needless to say the old man was shocked, saddened, and somewhat relieved.

It was only his perception that made it appear 
that  the butterfly was having a hard time.

From then on the old man knew that loving something sometimes means to pray for it and cheer it on!

He realized that sometimes appearances are not what they seem to be.

He realized that we all are beautiful butterflies, even though we have our own apparent struggles in life...