Embedded Files
The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. . .
That is how the question is posed in the well known book, The Velveteen Rabbit, and it is the question that Pastor Jon invites us to consider as he comments on the famous words of Jesus in which we are invited to take up our cross and follow Him. And so the question persists . . . What is Real?
To what extent do we find ourselves caught up in or enamored with "unreal" things? How is it that we get there? What is it that Jesus is getting at when He suggests the way of the cross as the "real" way we are invited to go?
This, and much more, is what Pastor Jon invites us to consider as he invites us to listen carefully to the invitation of Jesus to follow Him, to live as He did, and to let His life become ours. If you would like to listen to Pastor Jon's sermon once again, or perhaps for the first time, you can click here to access our sermon library.
Matthew 16 (TNIV)
24Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. 28I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Questions to Consider:
What is most "real" to you. Not just in terms of what you think, but in terms of who you are and how you live?
What is the picture of "reality" that Pastor Jon paints for us in his sermon, and that we find reflected in the life and words of Jesus?
What are the illusions that you find the most compelling?
What aspects of Reality do you most need to focus on?
Perhaps there is some wisdom in story of the Velveteen Rabbit that parallels what Jesus is getting at as He invites people to take up the "Real" way of life? As you pick up the dialogue in the story again, notice how the Skin Horse describes the characteristics of living "real"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
Let those who have ears, hear.
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