“Perhaps the butterfly is proof that we can go through a great deal of darkness yet still become something beautiful.” The third stage of a butterfly’s life is called the chrysalis. This is where the caterpillar forms itself into a cocoon. Inside this small, dark chrysalis is where all the action takes place and the caterpillar is transformed by metamorphosis into a beautiful butterfly.
Mental illness, sickness, cancer, cerebral palsy, etc. can bring much darkness into your life. And so often you have to question, why? Deep down you pray that there has to be some beauty that will emerge from all this ugliness. While we are inside the cocoon, the storm is raging on the inside, but it’s here that the changes are taking place. If we didn’t experience this stage, this season in our lives; we would always remain a caterpillar, something not so beautiful, intriguing and powerful. But it’s in the darkness, we emerge into something more beautiful, more powerful, more strong then we ever thought possible.
Right now, I am still at the metamorphosis stage. I’m still changing, still evolving and still hoping that I am becoming someone more beautiful on the inside, stronger then I ever was before and a better person because I have experienced so much darkness and brought down to the valley of life. But it is in the valley that we are restored, we grow, we emerge. If we were always on the mountaintop we would never experience growth and new life.
I do thank God for the dark times (maybe sometimes a little unwillingly), for the valleys; even when I don’t understand, I just pray that He would keep us all in the hallow of His hand. And one day, I believe that we will ‘come forth as gold’. For in Job 23:10 we read, “But He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me, I SHALL come forth as gold”
Do I believe today, that I have come forth as gold? No, but I have to believe and not loose hope that one day, in His time, I will! So if you are experiencing a very dark place in your life today, be encouraged, you too can and will come forth as gold. You can go through a lot of darkness but you will see the light again and shine with beauty. Remember God loves you, you are not alone.
