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The Runaway Bunny
One of my favorite books to read to kids is Margaret Wise Brown’s classic, “The Runaway Bunny.”
Sitting safely on his mother bunny’s lap, little bunny says that he wants to run away. When she tells him that, if he runs away, she’ll run after him (“because you are my little bunny”), he begins to imagine running off to all kinds of places and adventures. The story has been criticized as a dreadful parable of the worst sort of helicopter parenting. I shake my head. This book is for toddlers, who need to know that Mom is near as they begin to explore. But I like to think this is also a book for all of us as Christians.
Years ago, I went to a silent retreat in a crabby, rebellious mood. Things had not been going my way that week and the day of silence and contemplation just wasn’t working for me either.
I sat there, inwardly wailing, “Lord, I’m done with family and friends! I’m even thinking I’m done with you! I don’t really like anyone and I really, really don’t like myself!” It was a dark place I was in; I had run away to a cave of bitterness and anger.
And God spoke to me. I didn’t hear an audible voice, but I was completely aware of the words and of a tone of tender parental amusement: “Don’t worry. I’m not going to let you get away.” What a blessing it is to hear God’s voice! His words bring forth life.
Just like the Runaway Bunny’s mother, saying, “If you run away, I will run after you. For you are my little bunny.”
If you know the story, you know the mother promises that if her child becomes a rock on the mountain, she’ll climb to him; if he’s a flower in a hidden garden, she’ll be the gardener; and if he’s a sailboat, she’ll be the wind. In the end, he decides to stay home, and she gives him a carrot.
Does that sound familiar? Doesn’t God seek us, tend us, feed us? Isn’t the Spirit the wind in our sails?
We don’t have to worry – God will always find us.
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