Jess was getting on in years when he first heard the children’s folktale about the boy and the butterfly. Right away, he understood the story’s lesson on gaining strength from struggle. In the tale, a boy is given a butterfly cocoon but told not to open it. But as the cocoon slowly twists and shudders in his hand, the boy can’t resist using scissors to split it open so the butterfly inside can escape.
Freed from the struggle, however, the butterfly falls to the ground and dies without ever flying. “What happened?” the boy cries. Jess, after a long life, understood instantly. “The boy prevented the butterfly from using the muscles needed to grow strong and fly.”
The children’s lesson may be a fable, but it affirms the bracing biblical truth taught by Paul to persecuted believers in Jesus in Rome: “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).
Paul wasn’t saying to celebrate pain or deny its heartbreak. He confirmed instead that God will use life’s troubles to build our character, growing our hope in Him.
It’s in His strength that God develops our trust in His overcoming power. The butterfly was cheated from growing stronger to fly. But in Christ, we can rejoice as struggles lift us with character to God our deliverer.
What’s your attitude regarding struggle? How has struggle grown your trust in God?
As I face life’s struggles, dear Jesus, I thank You for building my character and trust in You.
Paul’s argument throughout the book of Romans is complex, and there’s a reason that it forms the foundation of much of our theology of salvation. Chapter 5 comes as the conclusion to his opening argument—that no one is justified (made right) by God on their own. The gentiles failed, and the Jews couldn’t perfectly keep the law. Only through faith (modeled by Abraham as Paul points out in the previous chapter) can we enter into a right relationship with God. But that relationship won’t always be framed in roses. Faith results in more than the hope we have; it’s also experienced in the refinement we undergo as we endure suffering. We become more like Christ as we grow in both character and faith in the midst of our struggles.
