The Baby Bunny

Can I just say, from where I sit in Michigan, I think I am ready to start complaining about being too hot.  I know that over the years I have favored the 75 degree mark, complained about the over-80 heat and humidity.  

But, I think I’m ready, if given the chance to say once again it is too hot.  I’m waiting for that opportunity.  I have confidence that it will one day soon be possible.

I now have to accept that we have officially skipped spring, as summer is coming next week and I am yet to plant my beans.  Because of the overabundance of rain, I will have to pot my tomato plants this year, rather than plant them in the ground.  The special area where I unintentionally feed the rabbits with my budding bean plants every year will not be able to outlast the sogginess.

Speaking of rabbits, when I am not mad at them for eating my bean plants, I appreciate their cute fuzziness. The other day as my husband was transplanting plants, he dug a good size hole in our front garden.  Lying in the hole was a tiny baby bunny.  Scared by the activity, the little bunny hopped out of the hole and ran over to the entry door to our garage.

At that point, as my husband tells it, the little bunny spread himself on the metal kick guard at the base of the door.  He stretched himself out completely flat.  He must have been trying to camouflage himself.

So my husband didn’t have any choice but to pick up the little guy by the soft skin of his neck and place him gently under a bush where he would not be stepped on or accidentally kicked.

My husband’s natural tenderness for God’s little creature inclined him to move him to safety.

Do you ever have days when you feel like that baby bunny?  Days when you would like to just stretch out on a cool surface and pretend like nobody can see you?

Have you ever noticed that at those times, God picks you up and places you in the warmth of his hand?  That when, in our obstinacy or ignorance, we place ourselves in harm’s way, God provides the security, the cover for us?

That’s what fathers are supposed to do.

Of course, not all human fathers do that.

As we celebrate Father’s day, we are so grateful for the good men who protect and care for their children and yet we must also pray for those who do not.

And so we pray for absent fathers.

And for fathers who are alcoholics and drug addicts.

And for fathers in prison.

And for fathers whose behaviors have been detrimental to the health, development and well-being of their children.

And for the reconciliation of soured relationships.

And for forgiveness for the pain.

And for those fathers who have died and those of us who must experience the grief of so great a loss.

Father’s Day brings to mind so many wonderful memories for some people, and painful ones for others.

But the good news is that this is a day that all of us can celebrate because regardless of our personal experience of fatherhood here on earth, we share a loving Father in heaven, who always has his eye on us and can gently lift us up to rest in his gentle hand.

Wishing you a blessed Father’s Day as I am grateful for the father my husband has been to our children, and as I am missing my own father who died of a heart attack at the age of 38 many, many years ago.

Janet Cassidy

Janetcassidy.com

Janetcassidy.blubrry.net