The Velveteen Rabbit

5LentB, Sullivan Park Care Center, March 25, 2012 by Annette Fricke

The whole idea of losing in order to win, of dying in order to live, of sacrificing in order to save, runs counter to reasonable living. It goes against the common sense of humankind’s basic instinct to survive. It is nonsensical. I am sure that many in the crowd that day walked away scratching their heads, confused and bewildered by the words they heard, disappointed in Jesus. I am sure others in the crowd understood what Jesus said and reckoned him a madman. And a few, I am quite sure, of those who came to see Jesus were inspired, encouraged, and greatly challenged as they began to follow the teacher and his new teaching. It is my hope that these passages from the scriptures are always challenging whether stories of Jesus, or the prophet Jeremiah, or any other Biblical prophet. We can learn much, even from people very different from us. I also hope that you may find inspiration and encouragement to continue your journey with God.

That is how it is when a teacher teaches. Children as well as adults will come away with different things when someone teaches them. I don’t think Jesus used flannel boards or something that was used for Sunday School when I was a kid; but I am sure that people thought about what he said because they knew that he was a fellow Jew and had been known to attend Temple like other religious Jews. They knew he was the son of Mary and Joseph and enough about him to consider that he had something worth teaching and therefore worth hearing.

As tradition would have it, Jesus’ father was a carpenter. I always wondered what kinds of tools they used then for carpentry. They definitely did not have power tools because it was way before electricity and batteries which we now consider to be commonplace. I imagine it is possible that sawdust could have been a byproduct of the use of a hand saw or chisel.

My favorite toy, as a child, was a sawdust stuffed dog. I named the stuffed dog, Doggy Daddy not knowing till much later that it was also the name of a cartoon character. I toted Doggy Daddy around with me around the house and my parents’ property, but nowhere else. I was not allowed to take him in the car. But like the Velveteen Rabbit, it did not have hind legs, only front ones.

The original Velveteen Rabbit was written in 1922 and has survived the test of time. It is still available in the original version at the local library. It is a story told from the perspective of the Velveteen Rabbit who is a Christmas present that originally sits on the shelf or the floor of the nursery and is not played with by the boy. The feeling of aloneness of the rabbit, which doesn’t get playtime, is expressed by the rabbit. Finally, the boy’s favorite toy is nowhere to be found, and the Nanny replaces it with the Velveteen Rabbit. The rabbit sees himself and all of the toys as people, especially the Skin Horse who talks to him and says that he is real and that the rabbit can become real as well when loved by people. The horse explains that the reason the horse looks so beat up and has most of his hair missing is because he was loved by the boy’s uncle. When the nanny gives the rabbit to the boy, the boy loves the rabbit and takes him everywhere he goes. When the boy gets sick, the rabbit is still there in the bed with the boy and stays the duration of his illness with Scarlet Fever. The rabbit senses, from his conversation with the horse, that the way to become real is the goal and to become real is to receive and be loved. There is also a hint that perhaps the rabbit loves the boy, although it is quite clear that the boy is the initiator of love and the rabbit is dependent upon the boy. The Velveteen Rabbit ends up on the burn pile because spending all that time with the boy meant that he was full of Scarlet Fever contagion. Burning, as most of you know, was a common way to attempt to alleviate the spread of disease before vaccinations were developed. If you don’t know the story, you will be thinking surely this is the end for the Velveteen Rabbit. He will be burned up with the rest of the heap. But that isn’t what happens.

The Greeks mentioned in this gospel reading appear to be Gentiles. They are trying to get to Jesus through Philip. They say to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” These Greeks are not Jews, but they see something of value in Jesus, something they want. The Velveteen Rabbit sees something in the Skin Horse that he wants, too. He wants to be loved and accepted, not a discarded, forgotten toy. He wants to become a real bunny.

How can we see Jesus? The Jews at both the juncture of the life of the prophet Jeremiah as well as the life of Jesus worshipped God in the Temple. Both Jeremiah and Jesus suggest a different way to worship God. God says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Just as a wood carver goes deep into the wood carving with loving care the vines, fruits, animals and people desired for all to see; just as the crafters of the sawdust stuffed animals of times past; so also is God’s love except God’s love is even deeper. The law of love is the standard. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Just like the relationship between the Velveteen Rabbit and the little boy, so also and even more so, God has loved us in Jesus Christ, and so also are we to love God. That love of God goes beyond this life. It is not the end when we die, but a new beginning. The Velveteen Rabbit begins a new life, transformed into a real bunny---the same, but qualitatively different.

It is easy to sit around and complain about loss of hair, constipation, poor appetite, feet that hurt and various other ailments of getting old. But it happens to all of us, to one degree or another. Sometimes we focus so much on ourselves that we forget that we are God’s creation, created to love as God loves us.

“What is REAL?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit one day... "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When [someone] loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.

"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand... once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.” ― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real

God’s love never ends.