Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 19 – Wednesday after 3rd Sunday of Lent
To Read:
….This was too much for Pooh. “Stay there!” he called to Eeyore, as he turned and hurried back home as quick as he could; for he felt that he must get poor Eeyore a present of some sort at once, and he could always think of a proper one afterwards.
Outside his house he found Piglet, jumping up and down trying to reach the knocker.
“Hallo, Piglet,” he said.
“Hallo, Pooh,” said Piglet.
“What are you trying to do?”
“I was trying to reach the knocker,” said Piglet.
“I just came round -“
“Let me do it for you,” said Pooh kindly. So he reached up and knocked at the door. “I have just seen Eeyore,” he began, “and poor Eeyore is in a Very Sad Condition, because it’s his birthday, and nobody has taken any notice of it, and he’s very Gloomy – you know what Eeyore is – and there he was, and – What a long time whoever lives here is answering this door.” And he knocked again.
“But Pooh,” said Piglet, “it’s your own house!”
“Oh!” said Pooh. “So it is” he said. “Well, let’s go in.”
So in they went. The first thing Pooh did was to go to the cupboard to see if he had quite a small jar of honey left; and he had, so he took it down.
“I’m giving this to Eeyore,” he explained, “as a present. What are you going to give?”
“Couldn’t I give it too?” said Piglet. “From both of us?”
“No,” said Pooh. “That would not be a good plan.”
“All right, then, I’ll give him a balloon. I’ve got one left from my party. I’ll go and get it now, “That, Piglet, is a very good idea. It is just what Eeyore wants to cheer him up. Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”
So off Piglet trotted;….
(Winnie the Pooh – In which Eeyore has a birthday)
From the Scriptures:
Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
(Matthew 6v1-4)
To Reflect:
So in they went. The first thing Pooh did was to go to the cupboard to see if he had quite a small jar of honey left; and he had, so he took it down.
“I’m giving this to Eeyore,” he explained, “as a present. What are you going to give?”
“Couldn’t I give it too?” said Piglet. “From both of us?”
“No,” said Pooh. “That would not be a good plan.”
And so the plan to make amends for having neglected Eeyore’s birthday (which it seems Eeyore didn’t tell anyone about anyway!) swings into action. Pooh and Piglet, and even Christopher Robin right at the end of the story, go and search through their various belongings to find a present for their friend. However Pooh’s generosity, though urgent, insistent, and inspiring, does seem to have limits to it…
Of course he is going to give Eeyore a jar of honey for his birthday but it is quite a small jar of honey.
Of course he is going to let others know that they also forgot Eeyore’s birthday but it would not be a good plan to share his gift.
Of course he could have shared his present but Piglet is left to give away one of his own birthday presents instead…
I don’t think Pooh is being mean spirited; I just think he is being a little ‘Pooh-Centred’. Some of his response is just raw human nature. It has been said that if five children were given three bags of sweets each with five sweets in them to share, the result would be that two children would be left with no sweets at all instead of the bags being shared out. Mind you this behaviour is not the exclusive property of the young (who at least are still learning to behave) and is too often seen amongst adults who should know better. The ‘truthful hyperbole’ made popular by books such as The Art of the Deal demonstrate that, even when being generous we can be tempted to believe that Greed is good. Not that our beloved Pooh is greedy, he just has a terrible weakness for honey…
This generosity with strings attached is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Too often those who can offer help want the whole world to know what their left hands and right hands are doing. Recently in trying to help a community project, I had the sadness of one company offer generous amounts of help so long as they would be seen as sole sponsor and our parish would cut ties with a local competitor. But it is not only on the corporate levels that generosity is tied up with T’s & C’s. How many of the gifts our churches use, from stained glass windows to silverware to hymnbooks, come with a ‘price’ attached. I hope that never ever will there be in any church anything paid for by me which has on it an inscription which runs ‘A.M.D.G’ (in small print) with in large print, uppercase, boldface and underlined ‘…and in thanksgiving for the life and witness of ANDREW STEWARD DOTCHIN’
In the Summer of 2001 a colleague and I ran a Youth Group Holiday Club without any resources save our own and we were thought foolish as we refused to charge a fee. In the end we were given donations that were twice to cost of running the event. These paid back what we had spent and gave us a budget for the club for the next Summer. My friend and I, living through this miracle of generosity, kept on saying these words, which have become a life motto for me, ‘When you give let go!’
Today Pooh and Piglet are determined to try to live this motto, with varying degrees of success, can we follow them?
To Pray:
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
To Do:
1) Today give something anonymously.
2) Find a motto to live by similar to ‘When you give, let go’ for the rest of Lent.
Please Note: These reflections are also published on my blog: suffolkvicarhomes.com on Twitter as @SuffolkVicar, and on my public Facebook page Rev Andrew Dotchin
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Acknowledgements:
Text from ‘Winnie the Pooh’ and ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ by A.A. Milne copyright © The Trustees of the Pooh Properties.
Line illustrations copyright © The Estate of E.H. Shepard.
Colouring of the illustrations copyright © 1970 and 1973 The Estate of E.H. Shepard and HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Prayers are from ‘The Little Book of Prayers’ edited by David Schiller copyright © David Schiller 1996: Workman Publications.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
These Reflections, ‘Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood’ are copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2024
Suffolk Vicar 