A White Hare Teaches Transformation
The way God designed a snowshoe hare is remarkable. Yet God does an even more miraculous transformation in us.
I could have reached down and picked up the hare by its ears.
Every fall I make my way up to the northwestern corner of Colorado, to the White River National Forest for a week-long retreat in the mountains. I tell my wife I'm going to hunt elk, but as I come home empty-handed most years, she knows the real reason I go: to take a break from the daily routines and "commune" with nature. Somehow, leaning against a tree for a week has a way of refreshing my soul.
Well, leaning against a tree was what I was doing when I saw the snowshoe hare. I watched it as it hopped a few steps through the trees, then stop and look around. It would hop a few more steps, then look around. The snowshoe's fur was part brown and part white as it was transforming to its winter coat. I was thoroughly enjoying watching it when, surprisingly, it turned and started hopping in my direction. The hare had no idea I was there and must have thought I was part of the tree or a log, because it came all the way up to my outstretched leg. It hopped on top of it and sat for a few seconds before jumping off and continuing on. The wild hare had sat on my leg! My wife would say I had a great "hare" day!
The way God designed a snowshoe hare to transform from a brown creature in the spring, summer and fall to a white creature in the winter is remarkable to me. Yet God does an even more miraculous transformation in us when we come into a relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus talked about this when He said that we must be born spiritually in order to spend eternity with God, just as we had to be born physically in order to spend our days on this earth (John 3:3-8).
Does that mean as a follower of Jesus Christ I am now perfect? Not yet! My wife and friends can certainly testify to that. Until we go to be with the Lord, our new spiritual nature does battle with our natural desire to sin. This is another transformation that takes place. "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2).
The second half of 2 Corinthians Chapter 15 talks about what our new immortal bodies will be like once our life on this earth ends. It compares this body and our new body to a seed and the plant it brings forth. For some of us, that transition will be in the winter of our life, just like the transformation of the snowshoe hare. For others of us, it may be sooner. But, what a hope we have to look forward to! Sometimes I think we're like a baby inside its mother's womb. Can it even imagine the world outside? We may have a hard time imagining what heaven will be like, but let's not forget its reality. And thank God for transformation!
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17
This article appeared in the March issue of Senior Times-Life After 50, Vol. 10 No. 3