Dear Family,
Enclosed find my latest Easter story on the meaning of Easter in parable form. Pray it will be a blessing to everyone. Comments are welcomed and if you like this feel free to share. The inspiration for this comes from a story on the internet I found about Peter Cottontail.
Peter Cottontail’s Easter
Once upon a time in a place called April Valley lived an Easter Bunny named Peter Cottontail. He grew up spending his days working with all the other Easter bunnies making Easter Candy, sewing bonnets and decorating Easter eggs.
Peter was really good at his job and when Colonel Wellington B. Bunny wanted to retire as Chief Bunny he named Peter as his successor. Peter gladly accepted the job that he had dreamed about all his life. Although Peter loved to boast and lie, he was sure he could do the job. However there was another bunny who also wanted to be Chief Bunny. His name was Irontail, and he had a grudge against all of the children of the world, as one of them had roller skated over his tail and now he had to wear a hard iron one. Ever since then he had wanted to ruin Easter for all the kids of the world.
Irontail was determined to get revenge and make sure Easter was never fun for kids again. He went to Colonel Bunny and demanded a contest be held between himself and Peter. The winner would be the one who could deliver the most eggs, and he would become the new Chief Bunny.
Peter was confident he could win with no problem so he accepted Irontail’s challenge. Then on the night before the big day Peter spent all night partying with his friends. He told his rooster to wake him up at 5:30 in the morning. However Irontail snuck into Peter’s house and fed the rooster magic bubblegum, sealing the lips of the rooster. This caused Peter to over sleep as he can’t hear the crows from the sound of bubblegum popping from far away. Thus poor Peter oversleeps and Irontail becomes the new chief.
He immediately passes laws to make Easter a disaster and something no kid would ever again enjoy. He insisted that all eggs had to be painted black, brown and gray. He ordered the candy sculptures to make chocolate octopuses and tarantulas and ordered rain boots to be worn instead of bonnets as he made it flood on Easter.
Meanwhile Peter ashamed of his overconfidence and irresponsibility that led to this disaster leaves April Valley in shame.
After leaving town Peter meant Seymour S Sassafras who was a weird peddler and inventor. His job was to provide April Valley with the colors to paint the eggs from his Garden of Surprises. He also delivered red, white and blue cabbages and purple corn, striped tomatoes and orange string beans.
Sassafras had a special time machine which was driven by a French caterpillar named Antoine. With Sassafras’ help Peter could go back to April Valley in time for Easter, deliver his eggs and beat Irontail.
Unfortunately Irontail got wind about Peter’s plans. So he sent his spider to sabotage the time machine. When Peter and Antoine try to fly it only goes to any other holiday, other than Easter.
Peter still sees no problem as he is sure he can get rid of the eggs on some other holiday. After all the rules don’t state that the eggs have to be given away on Easter. So Peter and Antoine land on the 4th of July. When no wants to buy eggs Peter paints them red, white and blue and lies to two boys telling them they are firecrackers. That of course fizzles out as they are eggs not firecrackers.
So they take off again crashing on Halloween. There Peter meets a witch Madame Esmeralda and gives her a Halloween egg as a gift. When she calls all the other Halloween inhabitants to tell them about her gift Irontail finds out about it and sends his bat out to steal Peter’s eggs.
Peter eventually gets his eggs back but by that time they are no longer on Halloween. Peter tries to go but can’t as Antoine has to land to somewhere to fix the craft. So they land on Thanksgiving where Peter tries to give his eggs away but without success. Everybody was too busy stuffing themselves with turkey and the works to care about eggs.
So they then move on to Christmas where Peter dresses up as Santa Claus and tries to sell his eggs. However the streets are deserted. Then Peter hears someone crying. He investigates and finds Miss Bonnie Bonnet crying in the hat shop. She is upset because no one wants to buy her for Christmas. Peter offers all his eggs to the shop owner for Bonnie Bonnet. Just then the evil Irontail appears stealing all the eggs again. However as he tries to get back to April Valley he crashes into Santa’s sleigh. Santa makes Irontail give back to Peter all the eggs he stole from him.
They then take off again in the time machine landing on Valentine’s Day. Peter meets a beautiful bunny named Donna, falls in love with her and gives her a Valentine egg. However Irontail finds out about it and casts an evil spirit over them and they turn green inside and out and all their eggs turn green.
This is the last straw for Peter who begins to blame himself for all that has happened. If only he hadn’t overslept and if only he hadn’t lied, then none of this would have happened.
Then everyone piles into the time machine and they next land on St. Patrick’s Day. There everyone loves green so Peter is able to give all his green eggs away. This causes Irontail to lose and Peter becomes the Chief Easter Bunny once again.
Antoine is rewarded by becoming a beautiful butterfly while Irontail is demoted to being a janitor and cleaning toilets. Peter leads a big Easter parade to celebrate his victory and the return of Easter as it was supposed to be.
Peter was very sorrowful about all that had happened and his part in it all. He wanted to show he had changed and let everyone know that never again would Easter be a time of sadness but a season of joy.
Peter wanted to get his message out to everyone but how could he do it? Peter thought about it for awhile. Peter had been to church as a kid and knew about God and Jesus. He also had been told if he would pray they would hear and answer his prayer. So Peter prayed for guidance. Then like a bolt of lightning striking it came to him.
The Easter bunnies were already giving out eggs for Easter to celebrate the coming of Spring, new birth, planting of crops, and everything coming alive again. It was also, Peter knew, the day the church celebrated the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.
Peter knew also Easter was supposed to be a season of joy because Jesus was alive and living again. He was also giving eternal life freely to all who would receive it. That’s when Peter knew what his new ministry and that of the other Easter bunnies would be. They would be messengers of joy and life that Jesus came to give all.
Peter was sure the kids would love it and be all for it. Christmas had Santa Claus and now Easter would have the Easter Bunny to bring presents just as Santa does. Peter continued to plan how this could all happen. He knew kids loved to play games. So he thought the Easter bunnies could hide eggs under bushes, trees, in churches, schools, homes, parks wherever little kids might gather. Then all the little kids could go look for them and gather them into tiny baskets.
Peter was sure they would have a great time doing it and peals of laughter would be ringing out everywhere as the kids had fun enjoying themselves. Peter was sure this would work. He knew he could take his message of joy to the kids. He was also sure they would have no problem understanding his message. They would then take the message of joy and help in spreading it to everyone. He also knew the girls would love the bonnets as would their mothers and everyone would love the candy and the brightly colored Easter Eggs. It would be a great time for all.
Peter couldn’t wait for Easter to come around again. When it did Peter put his plan into action. As he had hoped for it went off without a hitch. The kids had a great time laughing, running around, getting excited about finding the eggs. Then when reminded by Peter the Chief Easter Bunny they shared their eggs and candies with those who didn’t get any for various reasons. No one was going away sad this Easter instead everyone would go away happy and glad for this Easter. As Peter was watching and looking around he thought he saw someone watching and smiling. After thinking about Peter was sure it was Jesus and that he approved of what Peter was doing.
As Peter was getting ready to go back to April Valley he gathered all the little kids around him. He told them that as the Chief Easter Bunny he had a special favor to ask of them. The kids were all excited that the Easter Bunny would have something they could do for him. As they listened the Easter Bunny told them that he wanted therm to take all the joy and happiness they enjoyed that day and go spread it to everyone they meant or knew.
As we approach this Easter season Peter the Chief Easter Bunny and I have a request to make of you. Enjoy the eggs, candies and all the other presents the Easter Bunny may bring you. In doing that however remember the one who all this points to Jesus and the life and joy He comes to give each of us. Then take that joy and spread it wherever you go.
Give someone a smile today or maybe a hug or if they’re really someone special like grandma a kiss. Tell someone like mom and dad how much you love and appreciate them. Maybe you have a best friend forever. Tell them what they mean to you and how glad you are to have them in your life. Actually there are a zillion ways that joy can be expressed and shared perhaps you can think up some of your own that you can do.
Cool let’s all go and be joy spreaders making our world a better place to be. Can you do that? Peter, I know, would love it if you would, and if you want to know something else, so would Jesus.
Any comments welcomed
Brother Lawrence Damien Cos