The Lesson in Peter Cottontail

The stomach virus has made the rounds through the Bassett family this week, so we've stayed put. My sister gave us a copy of the 1970s clay-mation classic "The Legend of Peter Cottontail" for the children to watch. It had been years since I'd seen it. While we don't talk about the Easter Bunny at our home, I've always loved bunny rabbits and thought it would be something different to watch.

It tells the story of Peter Cottontail who lived in April Valley. Colonel Wellington B. Bunny, the retiring Chief Easter Bunny, names young Peter his successor despite Peter's propensity for boasting and telling fibs, which is exemplified when his left ear droops. Peter, who has dreamed of being the Chief Easter Bunny almost his entire life, gladly accepts. But not everyone in April Valley is happy with the Colonel's decision. January Q. Irontail, an evil, reclusive rabbit villain wants to be the Chief Easter Bunny, but only so he can ruin it for children everywhere. Irontail proposes that Colonel Bunny hold a contest between himself and Peter to see who can deliver the most Easter eggs to April Valley. The day of the contest, Peter overslept and lost the contest. Peter comes upon a French caterpillar named Antoine who introduces Peter to a time machine which enables Peter to go back to Easter and retake the contest. Through various events, Peter reaches every holiday EXCEPT Easter. Irontail sabotaged Peter's attempt to make things right and colored all of Peter's eggs green. After many failed efforts, Peter finally managed to give the green eggs away on St. Patrick's Day, since they are the appropriate color for the occasion. As a result, Peter is crowned Chief Easter Bunny.

It's a cute story with a lesson that I've never discovered until now.

Satan would have you believe your past is your future. If that were the case, Jesus died on the cross for your sins and mine for naught. God told Isaiah in Isaiah 43:18-19, "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."

God said He is doing a new thing in the life of His children---not a yesterday thing or a last year thing, but a NEW thing and it's ready to burst through for you and me, for those who are earnestly seeking God's will.

We don't have a time machine like Peter Cottontail in which we can use to go back and undo our past. However, we can press through whatever adversity has come our way and make it into a colorful display of God's grace and mercy for all to see.

If God tosses our sins into the "sea of forgetfulness", then let them lay at the bottom of the ocean floor!