I love the message it gives about beauty coming from suffering. Our weaknesses and deficiencies by human standards can really be an encouragement to others when we are not ashamed of who we really are. We shouldn't go around compare ourselves to others, but have the courage to use our own gifts and abilities the best we can. And we must learn to see the potential in those around us and accept them. One person can be great, but a group of people doing what they were meant to do produces something spectacular. I see a lot of the same themes in the Bible. Here are just a few that came to mind first:
Romans 5:3-5 "Not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us..."
Romans 8:18 "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him"
1 Corinthians 12: 22-27 "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it." (How the Church should be!)
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God."
There have been times in Argentina where I feel like my arms and legs have been cut out from under me because I don't have the same system of support and comforts of home that I am used to lifting me up. I have to learn how to minister at a "disadvantage" in language and culture. It's a struggle. But I am learning how to do things on my own by God's grace. I am striving to seek the truth rather than believe lies about who I am and what I am capable of. I may fall flat on my face a few times, but I might just find out I can swim. I am hopeful that it's only a matter of time before it turns into something glorious--something that will benefit others.
There's a story from the devotional I've been reading this year, Streams in the Desert, that correlates well with this video and my comments.
"I once kept a bottle-shaped cocoon of an emperor moth for nearly one year. The cocoon was very strange in its construction. The neck of the "bottle" had a narrow opening through which the mature insect forces its way. Therefore the abandoned cocoon is as perfect as one still inhabited, with no tearing of the interwoven fibers having taken place. The great disparity between the size of the opening and the size of the imprisoned insect makes a person wonder how the moth ever exits at all. Of course, it is never accomplished without great labor and difficulty. It is believed the pressure to which the moth's body is subjected when passing through such a narrow opening is nature's way of forcing fluids into the wings, since they are less developed at the time of emerging from the cocoon than in other insects.
I happened to witness the first efforts of my imprisoned moth to escape from its long confinement. All morning I watched it patiently striving and struggling to be free. It never seemed able to get beyond a certain point, and at last my patience was exhausted. THe confining fibers were probably drier and less elastic than if the cocoon had been left all winter in its native habitat, as nature meant it to be. In any case, I thought I was wiser and more compassionate than its Maker, so I resolved to give it a helping hand. With the point of my scissors, I snipped the confining threads to make the exit just a little easier. Immediately and with perfect ease, my moth crawled out, dragging a huge swollen body and little shriveled wings! I watched in vain to see the marvelous process of expansion in whihc these wings would silently and swiftly develop before my eyes. As I examined the delicately beautiful spots and markings of various colors that were all there in miniature, I longed to see them assume their ultimate size. I looked for my moth, one of the loveliest of its kind, to appear in all its perfect beauty. But I looked in vain. My misplaced tenderness had proved to be its ruin. The moth suffered an aborted life, crawling painfully through its brief existence instead of flying through the air on rainbow wings.
I have thought of my moth often, especially when watchign with tearful eyes those who were struggling with sorrow, suffering, and distress. My tendency would be to quickly alleviate the discipline and bring deliverance ..."
That is not to say we should just to turn a blind eye to those in pain. Not at all! We should seek justice and offer mercy (Micah 6:8). Rather it gives a glimpse of the redemptive purpose behind the trials of this life.
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