Living Hope

Well, we’ve already fallen off of the blog-a-week train. There is plenty to blog about at the Hust Roost (stay tuned for the honey harvest, the store floorplan, the summer C.S.A., and the store roof project!). It’s just that the past week has felt different. Our country was shaken, agitated at the very least, by the presidential election. To write a perky post about life-as-normal did not seem quite appropriate, either for myself or for you all reading this. Whether you were shaken by the outcome itself or the ensuing outpouring of conflict and grief (though they say that was mostly my generation) it was not the brightest week.

But perhaps the past week has shown you what it has shown me: that there is still so much Hope to be had.

People may be understandably conflicted, worried, even devastated, over the state of the U.S. but there is so much more to life than what goes on in the oval office of one single country. Life itself is so much more than that.

Life itself, and the miraculous nature of it, has been a source of hope to me this week. Two lives in particular named Shadrach and Wriggley.

These little bunnies are literal survivors. When found, rejected by their mother, they were nearly frozen to death. But… a few of them wiggled a paw and were whisked inside and put on a heating pad. An hour later, the babes were wriggling around and squeaking for food so I did some quick research, acquired some goats milk (thanks Moy family!), heavy cream, probiotic and an eye dropper, and got to work.

The great thing about infant rabbits is that they only need to eat twice a day, the milk being so incredibly rich (when fed by the mother they only need to eat once a day!). Still, it is not a hip-hoppity road for the bunnies. They are at risk of aspirating (breathing in the milk), getting dehydrated or constipated, becoming malnourished or getting too hot or cold. But my goodness are the instincts in these things amazing. If too hot or cold, they crawl until they find the right temperature. If they inhale any milk, they sneeze it out with surprising force. They even lick themselves to make themselves go to the bathroom… all from the moment of birth!

And so… by God’s grace… we’ve made it to 10 DAYS OLD. This is an exciting day in development—their eyes will open— a second birth, if you will! They will finally see the world and see us. We’re hoping they become sweet pets that even kids can play with. It is so exciting to think that all of the work may be worth it.

So with everything we do in this life. God says that everything will have a harvest or reward in the end. “Do not become weary in doing good for in due season we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Gal. 6:9) One of God’s absolute attributes is Justice. We may not see His hand creating justice in the visible world, but we can count on Him bringing it in the end. This includes reward for the good but also retribution for all of the evil. All sins will be paid for (either by us or by His Son’s sacrifice if we trust in Him) and all good things will have a “harvest.” It’s all going to be right in the end.

This hope we have is a ”living hope” and “sure hope” not just an “I hope-this-will-happen-hope”. Christ made it so by rising from the dead, proving that He reigns over all, including sin and death. He will prove it again someday!

Until then, let’s keep hoping! (And may the bunnies keep hopping… sorry, I couldn’t resist 🙂