Once upon a time, there was a
special little stuffed animal - a rabbit. This rabbit was for sale
in a store with bunch of other rabbits. The other rabbits were
getting sold and finding wonderful new homes, but this one only found himself
more and more alone. No one wanted to buy him because, you see, he
only had one ear. But one day a young girl came shopping along with her
mother. She saw this white, one-eared stuffed rabbit, felt bad for him, and wanted to take him home. So she pleaded
with her mother, "Let me have that one!" But the store
manager did not want her to take him; he offered her one of the other
rabbits, one that had both ears. He said it was better. But
she didn't want one with both ears, she wanted the one-eared bunny.
Finally, they consented and
she brought the stuffed animal home. She named him "Oeby",
for "One-Eared Bunny". This rabbit was her favorite and no matter
how many times her mother and she moved, from one state to the next and
across the nation, she took the rabbit with her. Even after she was
grown and living on her own, she still had the rabbit. Now, one of
her friends, Bruce, was going on a mission trip to the country of Ireland
and she decided to send Oeby along with Bruce, to be his
"mascot". She made him promise that he'd take Oeby along
with him wherever he went.
Before he went, for fun he decided to
write a handful of letters to the woman as if they were from Oeby, the
rabbit. They explained about the exploits of the trip, some of the
things seen, and of what good care Bruce was taking of Oeby. Now,
since Bruce was an honest man, when he went on his trip, he was careful to
do what he had promised to the woman, as well as the things he had written
to her in the letters. He carried the rabbit all over Ireland and
took excellent care of him.
His task while he was there was to
go from house to house, offer to lend people a video if they wanted it,
and to share with them how very, very much God loves them. It was a
video about Jesus - explaining God's love through the life, death, and
resurrection of his son. These videos he was handing out one day,
and he came to one house in particular with one of his friends, and they
knocked on the door. A woman came to the door, very pregnant, with
her little boy running back and forth between her legs. She happily
accepted the video that Bruce offered, while her Gaelic-speaking son
completely ignored them. Bruce and his friend had already left the video
with her and had turned to go, when Bruce suddenly got the clear feeling that God wanted him,
for some reason, to pull Oeby out of his backpack and show him to the
woman and boy.
So he turned back and pulled
out the rabbit, saying, "I am supposed to show you Oeby, my one-eared
bunny." The woman stopped for a moment, tears filling her
eyes. The boy had stopped running, and was standing perfectly still
beside her. As Bruce and his friend watched, she reached down and
lifted the hair from the right side of the boy's head and said, "Let
me introduce you to my one-eared son." And sure enough, on the
same side of his head as the rabbit, he was missing one ear.
Bruce and his friend were
speechless. They simply thanked the woman and left, too dumbfounded
to speak. But later, Bruce began to tell the story. It was
amazing. And even more amazing because he knew one more piece...
In the letters Bruce had written
to the woman before he left, he had told her of all the things Oeby was
doing with Bruce, and that God loved her as well, just like He loved these
people whom Bruce was speaking to. But I suppose God's plans were
bigger than for the explanation of His love to be just written to
her. His power was to be revealed more strongly than just in
the chance that this one-eared rabbit would meet this one-eared boy on the
other side of the world.
So, before he even left to come to Ireland, it is completely true, that
Bruce had written then in one of his letters that he and Oeby had met... a
little one-eared boy.
What were the chances that the
little, rejected rabbit would be picked up by that girl, who would love
him so dearly and take him everywhere she went, keeping him even when she
was grown and living across the country? What were the chances that
she would become friends with Bruce and lend him this rabbit to take as a
mascot, and that he would keep his promise and carry him everywhere?
What were the chances that, out of everyone in the country, he would go to
this little out-of-the-way house and meet this woman with this
child? What are the chances that Bruce would choose to obey God's leading and
turn back to show them this stuffed animal? What were the
chances that even BEFORE he left to come to Ireland, not knowing a thing
about it ahead of time, he would write to the woman that Oeby would meet a
one-eared boy? And what are the chances of that happening?
Based on this story, can you
deny that God exists? Can you deny that He is in control of events
and active in our lives today? Can you deny that He loves these
people? Not only did He bring Bruce and his friends to tell the Irish
people of God's love for them, and to show them the video of the life of
Jesus Christ - how He was sent by God to die for the forgiveness of our
sins, so now we can be filled where we are lacking and we can spend our eternal existence in heaven. Not only did God bring
Bruce to do that, but he showed Himself to the woman with the little boy,
and also to the woman who had saved this poor, rejected one-eared bunny
way back when. It touched deeply with her because this rabbit had
been rejected and unwanted, and she came, fell in love with him, and
rescued him - she wanted him when no one else did... just like Jesus
does. He came because He loves us so much and died on the cross to
rescue us. He wants us even when no one else does, when we're not
good enough, when we're not complete... He wants to be our friend,
to love us, to fill our needs, to hold us close - we're his favorite - and
to do all of these things for the rest of eternity. So we no longer
have to be alone, no longer have to suffer, no longer feel pain, shed
tears, or lack any good thing.
Is that something you want
too? |