Second Corinthians 1:4 tells us that God comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others when they are troubled. The metaphor in the true story below has comforted me numerous times after the passing of a close friend or family member. But I’ve also used this metaphor to comfort others, such as when my father-in-law left us all too soon and my children were too young to fully understand.
This morning the story has come full circle to comfort me again in the loss of my dear sister-in-law, so I’m sharing below in hopes that it will bring comfort to you, too, in your own losses.
The Discarded Cocoon
~ author unknown
My Father was killed in an accident a month to the day after my fourth birthday. My mother, a highly emotional woman, reacted so violently that all my life I have been haunted by a fear of death. So, when seven-year-old John asked me about my husband’s death, only days after it happened, I wanted to be careful in answering.
How could I answer this child so that he would not experience the fear that had stalked me all my life? I prayed silently but fervently to be given words to help the boy understand.
“Do you remember, John,” I asked, “when we studied about caterpillars? Remember how the caterpillar spins a cocoon around himself? The cocoon looks dead as it hangs on a tree or against a board. We can’t see any semblance of life at all. But one day a tiny hole appears in the cocoon and out crawls an insect.
This insect grows rapidly. Soon it spreads its wings and begins to fan them slowly back and forth. Before our astonished eyes, it develops into a beautiful butterfly or moth. It doesn’t need to crawl on the ground or a tree anymore. It flits gaily from place to place, sipping nectar from flowers and fruit tree blossoms. It helps to give us lovelier blooms and tastier and more abundant fruits.
What happens to the cocoon? It still hangs in its place; but it is empty and worthless now. You know, John, the bodies we see on ourselves and others are not the REAL persons. Our bodies are tools or garments the real person uses or wears to enable him to do his work and carry on his activities here on Earth. But when his mission on Earth is finished, the real being leaves this so-called mortal body, just as the one-time caterpillar emerges from the cocoon.”
We buried my husband’s body, but my husband was no longer in it. That body is now like the discarded cocoon…
We miss our loved ones who go on before us. But we’re glad for their release from burdens and trouble. We’re thankful that, like the butterflies, they can live free and happy.”
From the relief in the child’s eyes, his easy breathing and relaxed attitude, I felt that he would never feel the fear of death that I had felt for years. I pray it is so.”
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new.”
~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
a collector (of sentences) 