O LORD, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
     You discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
     and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
     O LORD, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
     and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
     it is so high that I cannot attain it.
 
Where can I go from your spirit?
     Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
     and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
     and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
     and the light around me become night,"
Even the darkness is not dark to you;
     the night is as bright as the day,
     for darkness is as light to you.
 
For it was you who formed my inward parts;
     you knit me together in my mother's womb.
     I praise you, for I am fearfully
     and wonderfully made.

Psalm 139:1-14

Last night I read a classic children's book called The Runaway Bunny to our daughter. It's one of my favorite children's tale, and a little parable about the God who knows us so intimately. The book begins with a little bunny who wants to run away, we know not why. He tells his mother his plan, but she says, "If you run away, I will run after you." As little bunnies are apt to do, this little bunny challenges his mother in order to test his (and his mother's) limits. He tells her that if she runs after him, he will become a fish and swim away. But his mother replies lovingly, "I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you."

The little bunny continues. He will become a rock on a high mountain, a crocus in a hidden garden, a sailboat, a bird that can fly away... But his mother will become a mountain climber, a gardener, a wind that will blow the little sailboat where she wants him to go, and my favorite - a tree for the little bird to come home to. After even more imaginative attempts thwarted by the little bunny's mother, he finally says, "Shucks, I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny." And so he did.

Psalm 139 is such a prayer by a dear little one of God. There is nowhere we can go to run away from God. This could be frightening for some, but the Good News is fear not. This is not a God on the prowl, spying on us and waiting to catch us in the act of some heinous act. The runaway bunny's mother did not promise to become all of these things to threaten the little bunny, or to punish him. She made these promises because she loves him. How much more promising, then, it is to know that whatever leads us away, whatever remote corner we find ourselves in, whatever entices us away from God (or so we think), God is always there, as a tree to come home to and as a mother with open arms to run into. God knows everything about you because God created you to be in love and relationship.

Summer is a time of wandering, in so many ways. But in our wanderings, let us not forget to stay where we are in God. Be God's; praise the One who fearfully and wonderfully made you!

Thank you, Lord, for this marvelous creation that you have made of us. We praise you for the Good News that you are there for us. Be with us always. Amen.

The Runaway Bunny
By Margaret Wise Brown
Pictures by Clement Hurd
HarperCollins - 1942

Contributed by Pastor Joel
Sunday July 23, 2006
Liturgical Year B Week 35