A Caterpillar

We have a butterfly habitat and have been raising caterpillars for weeks now. This morning, one of them hatched into a beautiful Painted Lady Butterfly. A couple of things I noticed about this amazing process...

-Caterpillars grow VERY quickly (and eat everything). I have to say this is just like my son. There are times I'm afraid he's about to gnaw on the counters waiting for supper to be ready.
-They work diligently. They spin silk to help them climb, and it's amazing to watch how they wrap it around on piece, then bring it down and wrap around another.
-They shed their skin, twice! Twice we found pieces of each caterpillar left over. Once to move into their new furry bodies when they've grown enough and once to move into their cocoons.
-Breaking out of the cocoon is not easy business. It's a struggle. They fight, squeeze, push, and bleed.

What is MOST interesting is that, without this struggle...the butterfly would never be able to fly. I once read a story of a boy feeling sorry for this butterfly trying to get out of the cocoon and so he opened the hole and made it large. When the butterflies wings dried the boy noticed it's wings were malformed and he could not fly. In a panic he raced to his grandpa asking why, the tears streaking across his face. The grandpa had to give him the bad news that, in reality, while he tried to help the lil butterfly he actually hurt him because the process of getting out of the cocoon actually pushes all the fluids into the right place and stretches his wings to fly.

And so, right now my son is a caterpillar. Our fight just beginning, just soaking in all the knowledge we can while waiting for our official evaluation to happen in June. He's eating everything, growing like a weed and just enjoying being a boy. In June our fight will begin and from what I'm reading it's not going to be easy. It's going to be a struggle. He's going to have to fight for it, to squeeze, to push, and we both may end up bleeding in the end.
But you know what? After the blood is stained next to his cocoon of his old self there will be a beautiful butterfly. Nomatter what the outcome, I know that God will use him for GREAT good...whether still blind in one eye and the struggle to hear or if God's will is that he's overcome and corrected these issues.

Either way, he'll have a story to tell and a Godly life to live.