Passing by, I noticed that the white children’s rabbit with long floppy ears that sits atop our bedroom bookcase, was missing. “Where is my rabbit?” I hollered in hopes that someone knew of his whereabouts, but no one answered. After an exhaustive search, I wonder if it had fallen into the trashcan next to the bookcase. It had been emptied that morning.

All household trash at that very moment waited on the curb for pick-up.  Did I care enough about my floppy eared, big eyed little rabbit to dig through several large bags of trash? Or was I willing to part ways…forever! I must admit, I hesitated because I could imagine the slime and grime that would be involved in the excavation. Nasty stuff came to mind! But I also realized that my rabbit could not rescue himself.

The thoughts of my precious rabbit being taken to the dump and buried beneath an abyss of foul garbage got the best of me. I journeyed to the end of the driveway and began to methodically dig through the trash bags, one by one.  My neighbors began to speculate, wondering if I had lost anything valuable, like my mind.

Where are you Adam? The Lord God came to walk with Adam in the Garden but could not find him. (Genesis 3:8-9) In the effort to reunite with Adam, the Son of God, humbled Himself to become a man and go through the trash to find us. What if Jesus hadn’t done that! I think we take for granted the tremendous and gracious sacrifice He made on our behalf. Philippians 2:6-8 says it best, “He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

I knew that at least one of the trash bags contained spoiled chicken and rotten potatoes, so I prayed for the rabbit to be in any of the bags except that one. However, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” After unsuccessfully locating the rabbit in any of the other bags, I began to pilfer through that last bag. Did I find my precious rabbit? Yes, but not before being contaminated entirely by smelly rotten potato goo and rancid chicken juice. But the victory of the find was so sweet! There I stood with my little stuffed rabbit, both of us reeking unpleasantly. The neighbors continued to wonder at my sanity but I was ecstatic. My rabbit once lost had now been found!  

Cleaning up the mess, I returned to the house, showered and washed my rabbit. The sweet aroma of victory replaced that awful stench of the trash. My little white rabbit again sits atop the bookcase, restored, clean and clearly loved.  Only love would propel our righteous heavenly Father to ask Jesus to come into this world to save sinners from eternal destruction. And only love did! “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). That is the gospel message of GOOD NEWS!