A Sad Ending

Sunday afternoon we got home from church to find our chrysalides empty and five painted lady butterflies resting in our butterfly garden.  All the kids enjoyed watching them.  We'd been waiting and watching for a couple of weeks so this was a big day.  Jack was anxious to let them go, though.  He's got a compassionate heart towards animals and wanted them to be out in nature.  That's what makes the next part of the story so sad.
This morning we took a break from school and went out on the deck with the butterfly garden.  I unzipped it and we waited.  The first one ventured to the top.  We all kind of held out breath waiting for it to fly.  And it did!  It was really beautiful against the perfect blue sky.  It feels a little silly to say but I was so excited myself to watch it.  It was free, you know?
Until out of absolutely no where a bird swooped down and snatched our butterfly.
I could even hear it.
And all of our eyes were on it.
We were shocked.
I could not believe what had just happened.  It was as if that bird knew from the minute we came out what we were going to do and was waiting for just the right moment.

Then I turned to my children.
Big, round eyes.
A red face.
Mouths wide open.
Tears spilled.
Sadness.  Even anger.
I didn't know what to say.
We had a somber rest of the morning.

I hated that it was such a disappointing end to our lovely butterfly.  You know, I'm sure some people would say it's just a butterfly- get over it.  And while I kind of get that,  it's a little different when young ones are watching.  To them, this was a sad injustice.
And I get that, too.