Hunny! 40 Days in the 100 Aker Wood – Day 29 – Monday after 5th Sunday of Lent
To Read:
Now one day Pooh and Piglet and Rabbit and Roo were all playing Poohsticks together. They had dropped their sticks in when Rabbit said “Go!” and then they had hurried across to the other side of the bridge, and now they were all leaning over the edge, waiting to see whose stick would come out first. But it was a long time coming, because the river was very lazy that day, and hardly seemed to mind if it didn’t ever get there at all.
“I can see mine!” cried Roo. “No, I can’t, it’s something else. Can you see yours, Piglet? I thought I could see mine, but I couldn’t. There it is! No, it isn’t. Can you see yours, Pooh?”
“No,” said Pooh.
“I expect my stick’s stuck,” said Roo. “Rabbit, my stick’s stuck. Is your stick stuck, Piglet?”
“They always take longer than you think,” said Rabbit.
“How long do you think they’ll take?” asked Roo.
“I can see yours, Piglet,” said Pooh suddenly.
“Mine’s a sort of greyish one,” said Piglet, not daring to lean too far over in case he fell in.
“Yes, that’s what I can see. It’s coming over on to my side.”
Rabbit leant over further than ever, looking for his, and Roo wriggled up and down, calling out “Come on, stick! Stick, stick, stick!” and Piglet got very excited because his was the only one which had been seen, and that meant that he was winning.
“It’s coming!” said Pooh.
“Are you sure it’s mine?” squeaked Piglet excitedly.
“Yes, because it’s grey. A big grey one. Here it comes! A very – big – grey – Oh, no, it isn’t, it’s Eeyore.”
And out floated Eeyore.
“Eeyore!” cried everybody.
Looking very calm, very dignified, with his legs in the air, came Eeyore from beneath the bridge.
“It’s Eeyore!” cried Roo, terribly excited.
“Is that so?” said Eeyore, getting caught up by a little eddy, and turning slowly round three times. “I wondered.”
“I didn’t know you were playing,” said Roo.
“I’m not,” said Eeyore.
(The House at Pooh Corner – Eeyore joins the Game)
From the Scriptures:
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him;
(Revelation 22v.1-3)
To Reflect:
“It’s Eeyore!” cried Roo, terribly excited.
“Is that so?” said Eeyore, getting caught up by a little eddy, and turning slowly round three times. “I wondered.”
“I didn’t know you were playing,” said Roo.
“I’m not,” said Eeyore.
I wonder if there is a bridge over the River of the Water of Life? And if there is a bridge I wonder if you are allowed to play Poohsticks for eternity? In fact now I’m beginning to wonder that if there is a bridge over the River of the Water of Life and you are not allowed to play Poohsticks can the place really be named Paradise?
For many many families playing Poohsticks is an idyll at the middle of what can be a frantic time of children growing, grandparents aging, parental careers changing and house moving – the last time I counted I have moved home 33 times in 68 years! To have a family ritual, be it Poohsticks, or stone skimming at a beach, or crabbing from a jetty, is to find a quiet centre where there is a gentle competitiveness in a game which, by the end of it, everyone wins because all have grown closer together. Little wonder that the leaves of trees that grow by the River of the Water of Life provide the healing of the nations.
But then Eeyore arrives. Admittedly in a graceful manner but still as morose ever, and puts an end to the party. Like Owl insisting on giving the weather forecast when all Christopher Robin wants to do is splash in the puddles, Eeyore seems constitutionally incapable of having fun. All he seems to be able to do is spin around in an eddy and complain that he doesn’t want to be where he is and someone should do something about it.
These sort of people we label as killjoys. Perpetually seeking the worst and wanting to pull down the spirits of everyone else. To give him his due Eeyore didn’t expect to be in the water and makes a pretty poor fist of impersonating a Poohstick but perhaps he could have responded to his dilemma just a tad less gloomily?
This story reminds me of the time when I was vicar of the Parish of Standerton with Evander in Eastern Mpumalanga, South Africa. Four of the seven churches in the parish were in farming communities who suffered particularly during times of drought. Once, after a nine-month drought, the State President called for a National Day of Prayer for rain. Lo and behold the very next day it rained! I drove out to some of my parishioners who farmed the fields around St Francis Church, Val. Their response to my excitement at this answer to prayer? ‘Well, Ja nee, it was just a little drop which might help keep the dust down on the roads ‘n bietjie’. I’m sure farmers are long lost relatives of Eeyore!
What are we to do when these killjoys drift into our fellowship? After all if we are to be places where healing is offered they will certainly drift in. Perhaps, even, the measure of our welcome and our obedience to the call of our Beloved will be whether such people are amongst our number or not?
They are hard and difficult to get alongside, awkward and determined they never give up on the pet thing which peeves them but with which everyone else is content. And they hold on to their determination to not relax and enjoy the game with the tenacity of a Honey Badger.
But these too are beloved of our Beloved and if we cannot love them we belittle the love showered freely upon us. How will these Eeyore’s ever find joy if we do not constantly offer it to them?
To Pray:
There is nothing I can give you
Which you do not have; but there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant.
Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow.
Behind it, yet within reach, is joy.
There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see, we have only to look.
I beseech you to look
(Fra. Giovanni)
To Do:
- Plan to play Poohsticks with a child before the end of the Easter School Holidays.
- Do something kind (a gift, a card, sharing a task) with an ‘awkward’ member of your church fellowship. Do not look for a compliment from them; being able to offer service is a reward in itself.
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 