My daughter’s good friends were trying (very persuasively) to convince my daughter to adopt their bunny. It was an outdoor bunny, so they assured her it would be no problem at all … super easy to take care of.
For the past two years bunny has just sat in his cage on their back patio. My daughter’s good friends are really busy and never had time to pay attention to bunny. They assured my daughter that if she were to adopt bunny, he could just continue to sit in his cage outside on her back patio.
After much careful thought and deliberation … my daughter agreed to adopt their bunny.
Bunny came to live with my daughter almost two weeks ago. Bunny has turned out to be great entertainment for my daughter. When she gets home from work each day, she gets bunny out of his cage on the back patio and brings him inside to hang out with her for a while.
At first, bunny was not used to leaving his cage … ever. When my daughter would bring him inside and place him on a blanket, he would just sit there. He wouldn’t move. He made no effort whatsoever to leave the blanket or explore.
After a few days, bunny got up the courage to start exploring. My daughter would be in the kitchen fixing her dinner and when she turned around, bunny would be all the way down the hall exploring the bedrooms.
Then, when bunny started to chew on her nice storage baskets, she decided it was time for bunny to have a “bunny playpen.”
Here you can see bunny enjoying his “bunny playpen.” My daughter got a little “bunny tunnel” for bunny to crawl through. Bunny can even pop his head up out of the middle of his “bunny tunnel.”
As you can tell, there’s really no reason bunny couldn’t hop right out of his “bunny playpen.” The fence is not very tall at all. Bunny can easily raise up on his hind legs and look out from his “bunny playpen.”
But not once has bunny attempted to hop out of his “bunny playpen.”
The only thing Bunny has ever known is to be in a cage. Bunny has never hopped. Bunny has never jumped over things. Bunny has only ever sat in his cage on a back patio.
For bunny, his “bunny tunnel” is excitement enough!
The “bunny playpen” even has a little door in the fence by which bunny can get out. My daughter left the little door wide open to see if bunny would exit through the door to explore outside the “bunny playpen.” But no. The entire time the little door was wide open, bunny stayed in his “bunny playpen.”
So, my daughter experimented by picking bunny up and placing him on the outside of his “bunny playpen.” The little door was still wide open. Bunny could see his “bunny tunnel” inside the playpen. Bunny wanted very much to get inside his “bunny playpen” and run through his “bunny tunnel.”
Bunny went around and around the outside of the “bunny playpen.” But not once did bunny attempt to go through the little door into the playpen. Not once did bunny attempt to hop over the low fence into the playpen.
Most recently, during the snow we had this past week, my daughter brought bunny’s cage in from her back patio. (it has wheels so it’s easy to roll) Bunny got to spend the night inside, out of the snowy weather.
My daughter needed to clean bunny’s cage out, so she positioned bunny’s cage right next to his “bunny playpen.” She opened both of the front doors to the cage … the entire front of the cage was wide open. She put some fresh hay in bunny’s carrot-shaped food dish in his “bunny playpen.” She even put bunny’s little pop-up “bunny cave” in the “bunny playpen.”
Now … to watch and see if bunny would have the courage to leave his cage and hop down into his “bunny playpen.”
Nothing was left in bunny’s cage … except bunny. Everything exciting and fun was right in front of bunny … in his “bunny playpen.” The only thing bunny had to do was take a jump, and hop down into the playpen.
But no.
Bunny has never left his cage on his own. Bunny has never hopped or jumped.
For an entire full hour bunny sat in his cage … looking at his “bunny playpen” and wishing he could run through his “bunny tunnel” and hide in his “bunny cave.”
Countless times bunny stuck most of himself out, sniffing … and then pulled back in fear.
My daughter sent me these brilliant insights for the blog:
“We can get so used to being stuck in the way things used to be … and unable to escape, that when the doors are flung wide open and blessings are right at our fingertips, we keep ourselves stuck … even when we have every ability to embrace the happier, fuller life God wants to give us.
“But unlike bunny here, God won’t pick us up and put us in the blessing. He wants us to trust him enough to ‘jump out of the cage.’ ”
Eventually my daughter picked bunny up and placed him in his “bunny playpen” where he could run around and play.
But, like she stated, when it comes to our own lives God won’t pick us up and put us in the blessings he has prepared for us. God wants us to trust him enough to “jump.”
