He saved a rabbit.
And the rabbit thrived.
Opie, I mean Pete, thought that meant he got it belonged to him. He planned to keep it in the box.
Not so fast Pete.
Not so fast ______________________ (fill in your name there).
Living creatures (to very much include people) don't belong to us. We may affectionately call someone ours, but when it comes down to what is Truth, no one belongs to anyone but God. Creatures don't belong to us. Things don't belong to us.
David writes in Psalm 24:1, "The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it."
That covers everything and everyone.
So, if the rabbit didn't belong to Pete what was he supposed to do with it? It was doing great in the box. Why couldn't it live in the box?
Because God didn't create that rabbit to live in a box. He created it to live outside and be part of His creation.
We decided the best thing to do was let the rabbit be a rabbit.
So, after we finished eating supper, we made sure the dogs and cats were in the house, walked down the driveway and released Hopper in a secluded spot.
Within 20 seconds he had hopped away.
That's the best thing we can do with people too -- let them be the people they were created to be.
We gotta trust God with them. He's got them. He won't ever lose sight of them.
Hopper very likely, if he would have continued to stay healthy, would live a lot longer in a box. There are a lot of predators in the wild.
But a boxed life is no life at all.
Not for rabbits.
Not for us.