Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 25 – Wednesday after 4th Sunday of Lent
To Read:
[Pooh is asleep in his chair as the rain water floods his home until the cold water touches him] …suddenly he woke up with an Ow! – and there he was, sitting in his chair with his feet in the water, and water all round him!
He splashed to his door and looked out …
“This is Serious,” said Pooh. “I must have an Escape.”
So he took his largest pot of honey and escaped with it to a broad branch of his tree, well above the water, and then he climbed down again and escaped with another pot… and when the whole Escape was finished, there was Pooh sitting on his branch, dangling his legs, and there, beside him, were ten pots of honey…
Two days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch, dangling his legs, and there beside him, were four pots of honey.
Three days later, there was Pooh, sitting on his branch, dangling his legs, and there beside him, was one pot of honey.
Four days later, there was Pooh…
And it was on the morning of the fourth day that Piglet’s bottle came floating past him, and with one loud cry of “Honey!” Pooh plunged into the water, seized the bottle, and struggled back to his tree again.
“Bother!” said Pooh, as he opened it. “All that wet for nothing. What’s that bit of paper doing?” He took it out and looked.
“It’s a Missage,” he said to himself, “that’s what it is. And that letter is a ‘P’, and so is that, and so is that, and ‘P’ means ‘Pooh’, so it’s a very important Missage to me, and I can’t read it.
I must find Christopher Robin or Owl or Piglet, one of those Clever Readers who can read things, and they will tell me what this missage means. Only I can’t swim. Bother!”
Then he had an idea, and I think that for a Bear of Very Little Brain, it was a good idea. He said to himself:
“If a bottle can float, then a jar can float, and if a jar floats, I can sit on the top of it, if it’s a very big jar.”
So he took his biggest jar, and corked it up.
“All boats have to have a name,” he said, “so I shall call mine The Floating Bear.” And with these words he dropped his boat into the water and jumped in after it.
For a little while Pooh and The Floating Bear were uncertain as to which of them was meant to be on the top, but after trying one or two different positions, they settled down with The Floating Bear underneath and Pooh triumphantly astride it, paddling vigorously with his feet.
(Winnie the Pooh – In which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water)
From the Scriptures:
Jesus said, ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6v19-21)
To Reflect:
Four days later, there was Pooh…
And it was on the morning of the fourth day that Piglet’s bottle came floating past him, and with one loud cry of “Honey!” Pooh plunged into the water, seized the bottle, and struggled back to his tree again.
“Bother!” said Pooh, as he opened it. “All that wet for nothing.
In the end Pooh’s better nature comes to the fore as he and Christopher Robin set off to rescue Pooh but it is worth noting that the reason why he jumped off the branch to collect Piglets ‘Missage’ was, having eaten his way through ten pots of honey this jar might contain even more! And not only that, when he opens the jar he presumes it’s an ‘important Missage’ for him as it begins with a ’P’.
What endears Edward Bear to so many is that he always wears his heart on his sleeve, and that heart is made out of 24 Karat Hunny! Eventually he learns that his real ‘treasure’ is not to be found in ten (or even 10 hundred) pots of honey but instead it is amongst his friends in the 100 Aker Wood. Can we go on the same journey as our beloved ‘Bear of Little Brain’?
What would it take for us to wean us off our personal honey and find our treasure in its right place? Perhaps this is what Lent is really all about? Yes, it is not about the ‘honey, honey, honey’ but about why we let ‘honey’ and all the other paltry treasures that can be consumed by moth and rust and that thieves break in and steal’ rule our hearts? If not cautious we will end up being possessed by our possessions and held by whatever we hold on to. So why do we hold on to them? What foolishness it is to squirrel away ‘stuff’ when we know that everything has a Best Before date on it? We know we are called ‘to walk by faith, not by sight’ and are also called to ‘look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen, for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal’ (2 Corinthians 4v18). What is the answer? How do we learn to ‘Set our minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth’ (Colossians 3v2)? It is not easy but the writer to the Colossians reminds us;
for [we] have died, and [our] life is hidden with Christ in God.4 When Christ who is [our] life is revealed, then [we] also will be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3v3-4).
There you are! Here is the answer! All we need do is die to ourselves and then we can begin to explore the joy of living for others! My favourite missionary is Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur. She once wrote to an aspiring missionary that serving the Gospel was ‘A Chance to Die’ and as we die to our self (and whatever ‘honey’ it is that owns our heart) we learn what being born again is all about.
To Pray:
Protect me, O Lord;
My boat is so small,
And your sea is so big.
(Breton Fisherman’s Prayer)
To Do:
Look again at your Lent discipline.
Does it help you give away the ‘honey’ in your heart?
If no, pray about following a different discipline.
If yes, pray that you will not fall into the pride that too easily follows a spiritual triumph.
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 