A child discovers a cocoon and grows excited about seeing the butterfly emerge. Waiting is so hard -- especially if it involves more than two or three minutes. It’s only natural that rescue plots are hatched. How about helping the butterfly escape and fly away? So the child carefully plucks away at the cocoon until the butterfly is free. Only instead of flying free, the butterfly’s wings are too weak to carry it toward the sky. The exercise it would have gained from struggling to be free from the cocoon is missing.

Sometimes we are like the child, stripping away at the butterfly’s cocoon. As adults, however, the cocoon and what we hope to see emerge are far more complicated. Also, as adults we believe we are in a position to help. It happens when we become unhappy with our situation. So we try to help life out a bit. We try to help God run our life, since we can do it better. At least believe we can hurry things along.

We become like perpetual quarterback Brett Favre, going from team to team as our aging body pleads with us to rest. We decide our job no longer suits us and we seek greener pastures. Or we think we can’t endure the cocoon of failing health or a marriage that hasn’t gone as we had hoped it would. So we begin to tinker with our fate and take the matter into our own hands. We try to help God just a little. Often the results are disappointing or even devastating.

While there is much to be said for human initiative, often we simply bypass the whole idea of God’s sovereignty in our lives. God is sovereign and is fully capable of deciding what he will do for us and when he will do it. If there are cocoons in your life, it is quite possible God is using them to strengthen and develop your wings so you can truly fly when the time is right. The scriptures use another image, speaking of trials as being a refining fire that makes us shine as gold. God does have a plan and purpose for us, and he will see it to completion, if we are willing to trust him.

I am not advocating a passive approach to life but rather a patient one. We could learn much about patient contentment from Tedy Bruschi, the great Patriots linebacker who is retiring this week. No one ever accused this determined man of being passive. When he was drafted from college he knew he wanted only to play for New England. He told his family, “I want to stay with this team my entire career - I only want to be a New England Patriot. Growing up, seeing players going from team to team, coaches going from team to team, I never wanted that to be me.’’

Such a positive attitude can see us through the trials, especially if we know our life is held by God and not just by chance or fate. With this attitude we do not need to pry open the cocoon but rather wait for the glorious completion that is to come. While it might seem a bit too poetic to say that God has a butterfly ready to emerge in each of us, I believe it is highly appropriate to point out that along with the cross, the butterfly was a popular early Christian symbol. It pictured the beautiful renewal and resurrection made possible by Christ for people like us who would otherwise be trapped in our cocoons of human brokenness forever.

“My job is done,” Tedy Bruschi said as he announced retirement. “I’m looking forward to living the rest of my life.” Those words can also be voiced by all Christian believers who trust our sovereign God and loving Savior with our lives.