Children enter each day with openness, ready for whatever it might bring. Unlike many adults, they embrace each moment with imagination, wonder, and laughter. This is true too in matters of faith. This summer, we are exploring what it means to have "Faith like a Child," as Saint Luke members introduce faith topics through children’s literature.
This week, Amanda Heintzelman helps us explore faith through the lens of a child with the help of a runaway bunny.
Margaret Wise Brown published her classic children’s book, The Runaway Bunny, in 1942. More than 76 years ago, and during that time it has never gone out of print and remains one of the best-selling children’s books of all time. Margaret Wise Brown died more than 65 years ago, so we cannot ask her what influenced her writing The Runaway Bunny, but each of the dozens of times I reread it, I am reminded of Psalm 139.
Psalm 139: 1-16
O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.For it was you who formed my inward parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
Oddly, I did not become acquainted with this classic children’s tale until I was a young adult taking a college English class called “Critical Theory Since Plato”. Despite its grim sounding title, it is a class I remember fondly as one of the best courses I’ve ever taken. It consisted of less than 10 students and it was taught by my favorite professor and mentor, Dr. Betsy Morgan. At one point during the course we watched a made for television movie based on the Pulitzer prize winning play, Wit. The plot of the movie follows Vivian Bearing who is a professor of English literature known for her expertise in metaphysical poetry. Her life takes a turn when she is diagnosed with metastic Stage IV ovarian cancer. Late in Vivian’s illness, the only visitor she receives in the hospital is her former professor and dissertation advisor, Evelyn Ashford. Evelyn is in town visiting her grandchildren, when she hears that Vivian is in the hospital. In a powerful scene of compassion and deep, tender love, Evelyn takes off her shoes and gets into the hospital bed with tearful and suffering Vivian to comfort her. Evelyn reaches into the bag she has brought and pulls out a copy of The Runaway Bunny. She begins to read Vivian excerpts from the book in the calm soothing voice that a loving parent would use to comfort a frightened, vulnerable child, and as she pauses to reflect, Evelyn states, “Ah! Look at that, Vivian, a little allegory of the soul. Wherever it hides, God will find it.”
“The Mother said, “If you become a bird and fly away from me, I will become a tree that you come home to.””
God’s presence and love are inescapable. Even when we runaway, God pursues us. Think of the opening lines of the story. “I am running away,” the little bunny says. “I will run after you, for you are my little bunny,” the mother says. This is the story at the center of the Bible. It’s our story. From Adam and Eve hiding from God in the Garden of Eden, to Jonah fleeing from God’s call, to Peter denying Jesus after the crucifixion. We run, and God finds us. God is in the garden calling out, “where are you?” to Adam and Eve. He takes the form of a great fish and swallows Jonah up out of love for him, and Jesus appears in resurrected form to Peter and invites him back into relationship with Him, “Peter do you love me? … Feed my sheep.”
Reasons We Run
Another thing that always struck me about this story is that we are never told why the bunny is running away. We are left to guess whether the little bunny feels he has been subjected to some parental tyranny or injustice or whether he simply wishes to assert his independence and have an adventure. Young children love to run away. They do it because they’re feeling angry, or brave, or neglected, or proud, or sometimes just because they can. Some of the same reasons we run away from God. Who among us doesn’t have a childhood memory of announcing to our family that we were going to run away? I vividly remember getting angry with my mom at around the age of 7, announcing that if no one appreciated me, I was just going to leave, and marching up to my room to pack my little green suitcase. I was going to show her. She would be sorry she treated me this way. Much to my surprise, my own mother followed me up to my room and called my bluff. “Okay, if you’re going to run away, at least let me help you pack. You’re going to need at least 3 pairs of clean underwear.” By the time we had finished packing, I had changed my mind.
Have A Carrot
Tonight I chose to pair our Psalm and New testament reading with Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, because this is where Jesus himself teaches on the theme of God’s persistent, steadfast, and pursuing love. The shepherd goes in search of the sheep “until he finds it.” Jesus tells us that the love of God is like that shepherd who always goes in search of those who have run away or wandered away, and when he finds them, He invites us all to rejoice.
God knows us completely – and loves us anyway. This is the great truth of good and simple faith that sometimes even great theologians need to remember – that God is always with us and for us, no matter how dire the circumstances of our lives may be. God is there in comfort and sorrow – in floods and natural disasters, in the streets of Kensington where an addict tries to numb his pain the best way he knows how, in the VA hospital where a homeless veteran dies alone, in the doctor’s office where a couple learns they’ve had a miscarriage, in prisons and mental health facilities, in times and places of great joy and great despair.
There is no escaping God. We are never alone – runaway bunnies or runaway Christians. Every night before bed I tell Laura, “I love you to the moon and back, forever and always, no matter what.” I want her to have that daily reminder that my love for her is immeasurable, has no expiration date, and is absolutely unconditional. Just like God’s love for us.
In the story, the little bunny finally concludes, “Shucks, I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.” And the mother bunny simply replies, “Have a carrot.” If that isn’t grace, the opportunity to experience God in spite of yourself, then I don’t know what is.
God of inescapable love, there is no out running your affections. Your love is immeasurable! Whatever our reason to run and hide, you unconditionally seek us out. Help us to remember that we will always be “your little bunny” and to be filled with gladness as you continue to offer us grace upon grace. We praise you for knowing us, loving us, for always having a place at your table for us, and of course for all of the “carrots.” Amen.
Special thanks to Amanda for sharing this great story with us. Amanda married into Saint Luke 11 years ago when she and Matt got hitched. Fun fact: they were the first wedding reception hosted in the newly renovated Schlack Hall! Amanda serves on the worship committee, but is probably best known at Saint Luke as Mint's (the service dog) handler and Laura Jane's mom.