This one makes me feel a little like Aesop.
For the past few weeks, a brown cottontail rabbit has come hopping through our property in the early evening hours. We have only two kinds of rabbits in Florida, the other being the marsh rabbit, with shorter ears, legs, and tail than the cottontail, but who is also a strong swimmer and lives near water. So we on our dry property knew exactly what this one was, the good old Eastern Cottontail that thrives practically everywhere east of the Rockies. A little over a foot tall, with ears not quite as large as some, but obvious when you see the silhouette through some bushes, and that powder puff white tail that cannot be missed when he runs.
After a few days, he discovered our yard, just under the bird feeders. Due to all the falling birdseed, the grass grows especially green and lush there. One evening after Keith had mown, the rabbit crept through the fence, crawled through the jasmine vines, and plopped right down in that spot, flat on his belly, and enjoyed the grass buffet laid out for him. He did not have to move an inch, just turn his head in a circle and eat around him. It took a good half hour.
The next evening really surprised us. He crept through the fence but stopped under the jasmine vines, settled in, and proceeded to bite off foot long lengths of vine, and eat them, the stems growing shorter and shorter as they neared his chomping little jaws. I have plenty of jasmine, but he must have eaten three or four feet of the stuff. Poor guy is really hungry, I thought, so I laid a couple of large outer lettuce leaves right under the jasmine the next day. Now he sits on the lettuce as if it were a royal pillow and eats the vines, not exactly what I had in mind, but okay. I checked to be sure, and jasmine is not toxic to rabbits.
But we also have a red fox visiting us in the evenings. Foxes are extremely toxic to bunny rabbits. This fox however, visits our grape arbor. We have had a bad year, after an extremely good one last year, but we wondered what was happening to the few grapes we did have. We looked out the office window one night and found out. That fox wandered along the grape vines, pulling off the ripe ones and eating them. Then he stood on his hind legs and got the next higher ones. If we ate more than three dozen grapes during the harvest month of August I would be very surprised.
This bunny has no problem eating. He has no problem traipsing out of his burrow to find what he knows he needs. Neither does the fox for that matter. He ventures where he can easily smell that we have been, sitting on the swing under the arbor, and probably watches us walk there from his cover in the woods. He comes anyway, because he is hungry. And they both seem to know what is good for them and what is not. Why don't my brothers and sisters? When the elders have to beg us to attend classes, what does that say about our desire for the bread of life? When extra classes are offered and go barely noticed, what does it say about our priorities? Lately, Keith and I have been approached for private studies with both individuals and whole families. We are thrilled. But it should be so many more than these few.
A fox and a bunny rabbit are not only smarter than some of my brethren, maybe they are braver too. One of these days, they may wish they had listened to their spiritual hunger pains. One of these days, it may not be so easy to find. One of these days it may just be too late.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:48-51).
Dene Ward
For the past few weeks, a brown cottontail rabbit has come hopping through our property in the early evening hours. We have only two kinds of rabbits in Florida, the other being the marsh rabbit, with shorter ears, legs, and tail than the cottontail, but who is also a strong swimmer and lives near water. So we on our dry property knew exactly what this one was, the good old Eastern Cottontail that thrives practically everywhere east of the Rockies. A little over a foot tall, with ears not quite as large as some, but obvious when you see the silhouette through some bushes, and that powder puff white tail that cannot be missed when he runs.
After a few days, he discovered our yard, just under the bird feeders. Due to all the falling birdseed, the grass grows especially green and lush there. One evening after Keith had mown, the rabbit crept through the fence, crawled through the jasmine vines, and plopped right down in that spot, flat on his belly, and enjoyed the grass buffet laid out for him. He did not have to move an inch, just turn his head in a circle and eat around him. It took a good half hour.
The next evening really surprised us. He crept through the fence but stopped under the jasmine vines, settled in, and proceeded to bite off foot long lengths of vine, and eat them, the stems growing shorter and shorter as they neared his chomping little jaws. I have plenty of jasmine, but he must have eaten three or four feet of the stuff. Poor guy is really hungry, I thought, so I laid a couple of large outer lettuce leaves right under the jasmine the next day. Now he sits on the lettuce as if it were a royal pillow and eats the vines, not exactly what I had in mind, but okay. I checked to be sure, and jasmine is not toxic to rabbits.
But we also have a red fox visiting us in the evenings. Foxes are extremely toxic to bunny rabbits. This fox however, visits our grape arbor. We have had a bad year, after an extremely good one last year, but we wondered what was happening to the few grapes we did have. We looked out the office window one night and found out. That fox wandered along the grape vines, pulling off the ripe ones and eating them. Then he stood on his hind legs and got the next higher ones. If we ate more than three dozen grapes during the harvest month of August I would be very surprised.
This bunny has no problem eating. He has no problem traipsing out of his burrow to find what he knows he needs. Neither does the fox for that matter. He ventures where he can easily smell that we have been, sitting on the swing under the arbor, and probably watches us walk there from his cover in the woods. He comes anyway, because he is hungry. And they both seem to know what is good for them and what is not. Why don't my brothers and sisters? When the elders have to beg us to attend classes, what does that say about our desire for the bread of life? When extra classes are offered and go barely noticed, what does it say about our priorities? Lately, Keith and I have been approached for private studies with both individuals and whole families. We are thrilled. But it should be so many more than these few.
A fox and a bunny rabbit are not only smarter than some of my brethren, maybe they are braver too. One of these days, they may wish they had listened to their spiritual hunger pains. One of these days, it may not be so easy to find. One of these days it may just be too late.
I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh (John 6:48-51).
Dene Ward
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