Bunny had a wellness checkup visit to the vet this week. Obviously, bunny has the same opinion of doctors as I have! (Ha!)
Bunny has never been to the vet before, so my daughter wanted to establish care and get a baseline for bunny’s health. It was a very profitable vet visit … during which the vet checked bunny’s teeth. Bunny’s front teeth are doing good, but bunny’s back teeth are getting a bit too long. The vet asked about bunny’s hay consumption.
Well … bunny hasn’t really been eating his hay very well.
The vet educated us that eating hay is very important for bunnies in order to keep their back teeth ground down. They use their back teeth to grind the hay, and this keep their back teeth from growing too long. If bunny’s back teeth grow too long it will cause problems and he might need to come in to have the vet file them down.
(Oh that will not do! Bunny would not like that!)
The vet recommended that one day a week be “Hay Day.” Bunny should be fed only hay on “Hay Day.” No bunny food pellets. No yummy fresh greens. No carrot treats. If bunny has only hay to eat, then bunny will eat the hay he needs in order to keep his back teeth ground down and healthy.
So … my daughter immediately implemented “Hay Day.” The very next day she did not give bunny any fresh greens or bunny food pellets for his breakfast. Much to her astonishment bunny chowed down on his Timothy hay!
Well there you go! That’s the trick to getting bunny to eat his hay.
I was thinking about how this is a lot like Christians who only want short “pick-me-up” verses of Scripture to encourage them and make them feel good … much like bunny enjoying his bunny food pellets and fresh greens. There’s nothing wrong at all with bunny food pellets and fresh greens. These are very healthy. And bunny has been well-nourished by them.
But bunny also needs hay to eat. Hay isn’t as fun as food pellets and fresh garden greens. Hay isn’t as fun as carrot treats.
In our spiritual lives we don’t need just short “pick-me-up” encouraging verses of Scripture to inspire us and make us feel good. There’s nothing wrong at all with short “pick-me-up” encouraging verses of Scripture. These are very healthy (spiritually speaking). These nourish our soul.
But we need the deeper things of Scripture too. We need “hay” (spiritually speaking).
Bunny has to work to chew the hay. It isn’t easy. Bunny has to grind the hay with his back teeth. So also, when it comes to our spiritual nourishment, we need the deeper things of Scripture (which are just like “hay”). We have to work to “chew on” these deeper things of Scripture. We have to ponder these things … and turn them over and over in our head.
The deeper things of Scripture are very good and healthy for us! They’re not as “easy” as the “pick-me-up” encouraging verses, but they help to spiritually transform us and “grind down” certain aspects of us (spiritually speaking) which might be getting out of balance.
It behooves each of us to take a look at our spiritual diet and ask: Am I consuming a balanced spiritual diet? Or am I only feasting on tasty “treats” (spiritually speaking) and not bothering with the “hay.”
If the primary bulk of our spiritual diet is easy, tasty “treats” of Scripture, maybe we too might need a “Hay Day” … one day a week we set aside to dig deeper into the more complicated things of Scripture. Things which we have to “chew on.” Things which take some time to “digest.”
A spiritual “Hay Day” might be just what we need!
