Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 22 – Saturday after 3rd Sunday of Lent

“Thank you, Piglet,” said Eeyore.  “You don’t mind my asking,” he went on, “but what colour was this balloon when it – when it was a balloon?”

Piglet felt very miserable, and didn’t know what to say. He was still opening his mouth to begin something, and then deciding that it wasn’t any good saying that, when he heard a shout from the other side of the river, and there was Pooh.

Pooh had now splashed across the stream to Eeyore, and Piglet was sitting a little way off, his head in his paws, snuffling to himself.

“I’s a Useful Pot,” said Pooh.  “Here it is.  And it’s got ‘A Very Happy Birthday with love from Pooh’ written on it.  That’s what all that writing is.  And it’s for putting things in.  There!”  When Eeyore saw the pot, he became quite excited. “Why!” he said, “I believe my Balloon will just go into that Pot!”

“Oh, no, Eeyore,” said Pooh.  “Balloons are much too big to go into Pots.  What you do with a balloon is, you hold the balloon —”

“Not mine,” said Eeyore proudly.  “Look, Piglet!”  And as Piglet looked sorrowfully round, Eeyore picked the balloon up with his teeth, and placed it carefully in the pot; picked it out and put it on the ground; and then picked it up again and put it carefully back.

(Winnie the Pooh – In which Eeyore has a birthday)

(2 Corinthians 4v5-7)

…And we have our happy, if unexpected ending.  Pooh trying to cover over his perpetual need for ‘a little something’ tries to brazen things out by giving an empty pot and Piglet, over eager to be the first to give his present, ends up with a ‘small piece of damp rag.’    Two presents both empty, both full of emptiness and disappointment, but both cherished by Eeyore.  Who would have thought that someone could derive so much pleasure from putting something in and out of a pot?  But then any parent of a toddler would know that sometimes small things completely fill and please the minds of their child.  

Growing up on a vicar’s stipend, besides the hand-me-down Fisher-Price telephone, our children did not have many toys.  However they were enamoured if they were allowed to sit at the cupboard under the sink and spend hours taking out pots and pans and clipping clothes pegs on and off of them.  It needed a little clearing up afterwards but they were so content and happy.  It would be tempting to say ‘small things please small minds’ but that is to belittle the beauty of small things and those who do not need the biggest and the brashest to find contentment.

Perhaps, in the end, the presents not working out right was the best thing to happen.  After all Eeyore’s favourite food is thistles not honey, and if he had a balloon he would have to break the habit of a lifetime and learn to look up instead of looking down.  Besides that a full pot of honey could not contain an inflated balloon and it would have made a sad mess.  It seems that only when the broken balloon meets the empty pot that things fit together.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us…

Anything else leads to spiritual pride, hubris and a sense of being entitled which will lead to our downfall.  Thinking we have made gifts of our goods we will find that all we have done is make a God of our generosity.  This is the slippery path to Works of Supererogation and self-justification.

Our brokenness, our emptiness, regardless of how we came to be broken and empty, are exactly the gifts our Beloved requires of us.  Nothing else is needed.  How do the words of the old hymn run:

Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace:

Ojibwa Prayer

To Do: 

1. Give a little extra money to your church this Sunday
2. Search your heart, find the broken and empty parts, give them to our Beloved that they may be cherished by God.