At the risk of sounding silly and sappy, I want to tell you about a lost stuffed bunny.  I know, I know; it’s not even a real rabbit.  But, please stay with me.

The lost bunny was found on the side of the road by Erin Sorensen in Omaha, Nebraska.  Erin decided she wanted to try to return it to its owner.  She sent out a tweet with a picture of the bunny: “Hey Omaha people – Anyone’s family missing a bunny?  Found near the intersection of 52nd and Burt, lying in the street.  I picked it up because it looks like it was pretty loved by someone and I’m hopeful I can find that someone.”

Erin posted the news on other social media.  At this time, the owner has not been found.  However, the news of the find did reach a person in Michigan who wanted to help.  Danielle Allore-Taylor owns a plush doll restoration business called Fluff Stuffed Animal Restoration.  Danielle reached out to Erin and offered to restore the rumpled and ragged bunny.

Erin shipped the bunny to Danielle.  Danielle made a video of the restoration of the bunny from the day she opened the box in which it was shipped until it was fully restored.  She washed it, gave it a new “heart,” stuffed it, sewed it up, and brushed it.  The dingy gray bunny actually turned out to have a beautiful light lavender coat.  Danielle gave the bunny a new bow with a little pendant on which the word “love” was inscribed.

The beautiful stuffed bunny is now back in Omaha in the hands of Erin.  The search continues for its original owner.  This battered bunny has found “new life.” *

Okay, I want to stop talking about stuffed bunnies.  I want us to see how this bunny’s experiences relate to our own.

“But it wasn’t the bunny’s fault!”  True!  After all, we’ve described the experiences of a lifeless, stuffed animal.  But if this bunny could have feelings, I think many people could identify with them.  Some people feel abandoned, forgotten, and beat up.  Life has been hard for them, and they feel like they’ve been left on the side of the road to die.

We need to understand that the condition of that bunny left on the side of the road also somewhat describes our condition in sin.  Because of the wrong choices we have made, we have been separated from our Owner and Maker: God (Isaiah 59:1-2).  We are experiencing the “hard ways” of a transgressor (Proverbs 13:15).  We are desperate and dying (Romans 6:23).

But we are loved.  Our Owner and Maker has never stopped loving us.  In fact, He wants to restore us and bring us back home to Him.

Our restoration comes at a great price.  God, our Maker and Owner, had to give His one and only Son to die on the cross for our transgressions (John 3:16).  Because Jesus died for us, we can be washed from our sins and be found once again in the arms of our loving Owner (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).

God will save from sin and give new, eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ to have their sins washed away (Acts 2:38; 22:16).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

We may be lost but we’re loved.  Our Owner and Maker longs for us to be with Him.  The stuffed bunny doesn’t have a choice, but we do.  God will restore us and give us new life if we’ll only submit ourselves to Him through our trusting obedience.

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “Woman finds lost stuffed bunny and wants to locate its owner: 'Looks like it was pretty loved’” by Cortney Moore of Fox News, www.foxnews.com.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org