Dragonflies

I was reading in “Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul:  Stories about Life, Death and Overcoming the Loss of a Loved One” tonight.  A story shared within one of the stories caught my attention.  I have always liked dragonflies, now they have special meaning.

 

A group of water bugs was talking one day about how they saw other water bugs climb up a lily pad and disappear from sight.  They wondered where the other bugs could have gone.  They promised one another that if one of them ever went up the lily pad and disappeared, it would come back and tell the others where it had gone.

About a week later one of the water bugs climbed up on the lily pad and emerged on the other side.  As it sat there, it transformed into a dragonfly.  Its body took on an iridescent sheen, and four beautiful wings sprouted from its back.  The dragonfly flapped its wings and took off in flight, doing loops and spins through the sunlit sky.  In the midst of its joyful flight, it remembered the promise it had made to return and tell the other bugs where it had gone.  So the dragonfly swooped down to the surface of the water and tried to reenter the water, but try as it would, it could not return.

The dragonfly said to itself, Well, I tried to keep my promise, but even if I did return, the others wouldn’t recognize me in my new glorious body.  I guess they will just have to wait until they climb the lily pad to find out where I have gone and what I have become.

I don’t know if I have ever read or heard a more beautiful analogy of leaving earth for heaven.  I have always appreciated the beauty of dragonflies, now I will appreciate it even more so and now they will remind me of Scott and heaven.