Eastern Cottontail Rabbit, Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center, Weslaco TX

“if your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus

The morning fog, common in the lower Rio Grande Valley, did not burn off at Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center until about 10 AM yesterday. Dew, as they say, was heavy on the grass. Maybe because of that there were lots of Eastern Cottontail Rabbits out breakfasting on the grasses along the edges of the trails. Lots! Many of them were clearly this year’s young, not fully grown…but even the adults showed a fine disdain of the passing birders…often going about their morning business until we were within 6 feet of them. This young rabbit was at the edge of the tail the whole time I passed, and let me stand there and take photos of him without the slightest alarm. He did not even pause in his chewing. I guess he knew I did not want to eat him, and wished him only good. I would like to think he saw that in my generous eye…but I suspect he simply knew no better…having been born into a sanctuary where humans are, indeed, no threat.

Paradise is often portrayed, based on the Psalms, as a place where the “lion will lay down with the lamb.” That sense that someday we will live in harmony and mutual respect…in peace…with all of creation…that all creatures will consider us friends and we will care for all that lives, because all that lives matters to us as much as we matter to ourselves…that sense is deep within us. I believe it is left over from the Eden days, when we were still caretakers of creation…not out for our own good, but dedicated to the good of all that lives…because that is the way we were made…in the image of God who cares for all creation.

And I thank this little rabbit for giving me a glimpse of what that would be like…for allowing my close approach…for suspending alarm in my presence long enough so see the generosity in his eyes. As I say, I hope he saw it in mine. Happy Sunday!