Scott Wegener on why one should hop at the opportunity to
be an ester bunny.
Signs of the Times, Mar 2013
If you ever get the opportunity to wear an Easter bunny suit, hop at the opportunity!
Yes, you may sweat like a colander draining pasta, but it’s a small price to pay for the experience.
I was chosen to be Mr Bunny for an afternoon at my workplace. My brief seemed simple: wear a large bunny suit and hand out a basket full of Easter eggs to the employees at morning tea. However, once I had zipped into the furry white suit I quickly discovered I was experiencing a mischief maker’s dream – anonymity.
After the initial delight of seeing a 7ft high bunny enter the room the next question was usually, “Who is that in there?” But no one was guessing correctly.
This opened up a whole bag of sugar coated carrots and Mr Bunny started to become somewhat cheekier as time progressed.
Easter eggs began to be distributed rather playfully to each person, with more and more eggs ending up on the floor than in the recipient’s hands. In between hand outs, much gorging of the eggs was had by the Easter bunny, and with the same disregard to manners as the Cookie Monster shows.
Sadly, all too soon, the time came for work to resume and my confined freedom was over.
I certainly have a better appreciation of what the people who dress up as Mickey Mouse in Disneyland feel. (Oops, sorry kids! I should have given you some warning on that one! Mickey says “Hi “– now, go play outside for a moment…)
Actually, there must be an amazing up side to dressing up as the world famous mouse. Picture this: you’re reasonably broke, friends and family may not be living up to their expectations and you may dislike yourself for a number of reasons, from self esteem issues to nasty habits and past wrongs you’ve done. Suiting up as Mickey Mouse changes everything.
In an instant, you own properties all over the world (complete with castles), you have more cheerful friends and family than you knew you had, and you’ve become an innocent yet confident character. At least, this is how people outside your rodent suit see you. Kids and adults alike will approach you with sheer joy on their faces and plead for a photo, autograph or even a hug – and you’re not even technically real.
I guess the problem is the suit has to come off sooner or later (for hygiene reasons, if none other) and once the costume comes off you’re back to all the woes in your life.
I have found claims, however, of one such costume that can bring all the positive changes to your life and will never have to come off.
The Bible suggests in Isaiah 61:10 that there is a costume we can put on to cover our personal issues and become worthy of eternal life, “For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness”.
We need such a costume because in Isaiah 64:6 we’re told how miserable we really are – even when we try to impress God, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”.
This costume has become available to us from the Christian angle of the Easter celebration, Jesus’ death on the cross.
Rom 3:23-25 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.”
So essentially it comes down to this: we are all sinners (with dirty clothes) and need to ultimately die for our sins, however Jesus was perfect (clean robe) and his death can be used as payment for our own sins. If we accept the gift of Jesus, we have access to his clean record (robe) and will be accepted as new residents of heaven.
Next time you see someone dressed as Mickey Mouse, remember, there’s a person inside that has many issues in their life, just like you and I. While Disney provided a costume to transform them temporarily into something superficially perfect, Jesus has a robe on offer that can transform you into someone eternally perfect.