[Thursday's Devotional] - Rough Waters

Rough Waters I have now been aboard the Africa Mercy for 3 weeks and, as I shared yesterday, the first 2 weeks for me (and others on reception) were overwhelming.  We work rotating shifts 7am-3pm, 3pm-11pm and 11pm-7am, including weekends, which most of us were not aware of, and due to staff shortages, shifts were almost unmanageable with little time off.   "When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles.  The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit." Psalms 34:17-18 [NIV]    I am overjoyed to say things have now eased a little and on my birthday I had a morning off and visited the local craft market.  I was reminded of the important lessons that we learn through our struggles, not that it makes me like them!  The reminder came through some awesome pictures I bought from a local artist.   If you look closely, the picture below is made of butterfly wings, according to the locals, these butterflies only live for 2 days before dying naturally and the artist pays the village children to collect them.  I was reminded of the story of a boy who found a cocoon of a butterfly.  One day a small opening appeared in the cocoon.  The boy sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to squeeze it's body through the tiny hole.  Then it stopped as if it couldn't go any further.  The boy decided to help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and nipped off the remaining bits of cocoon, the butterfly emerged easily but…it had a swollen body and shrivelled wings.  The boy continued to watch it, expecting that any minute the wings would enlarge and expand enough to support the body.  Neither happened, in fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around the ground.  It was never able to fly.  In his kindness and haste the boy didn't understand that the butterfly can fly only because it has to struggle to come out of the cocoon. The pushing forces enzymes from the body to the wing tips…strengthening the wing muscles, and reducing body weight allowing it to fly.  This process started with struggle and ended with the butterfly flying the moment it came out of the cocoon.   One of the messages in this story is that the struggle was part of what the butterfly needed to do in order to fly.  Without the struggle, the butterfly was destined to crawl around on its belly and probably die an early death.   Life is full of struggles, or challenges and as uncomfortable as they may feel at the time, they hone our skills and make us strong.   Dawn Milward Twitter Website Copyright © 2017 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!