The Deranged Easter Bunny Jammies

 

I will make no excuses.

 

I love A Christmas Story.

 

It is pretty much my favorite Christmas movie and when TBS does it's 24 hours of ACS, I watch.

 

All 24 hours!

 

So it shouldn't be surprising that I would eventually find a way to relate life to the story. Oh, there are tons of parallels one could draw, but my favorite is the bunny PJs.

 

We start to treat our life like those pepto pink furry jam-jams. You open the box and think, "sweet Lord, I am NOT putting these on." In the thoughts of Ralphie you won't put it on because you know that it will make your life hell.

 

But then someone says, "But Aunt Clara went through all that trouble to make it and she always sends you the nicest things!" So you put it on to make them happy.

 

You hate it. You loathe it in fact. But you put on that suit with all its undesired traits. Can you see how life is like this?

 

Sometimes we all have a costume that we wear. We put it on only because someone has said that we should to be courteous, or kind, or to appease someone for some reason. I get it. You don't want to step on any toes so like a good little boy or girl you put on the pink bunny and you trudge down the steps to face life in something that makes you wish that your soul would jump from your body.

 

We walk around in this outfit miserable. Then finally, FINALLY at long last we hear this voice. A voice that will be our saving grace. We hear Ralphie's dad, we hear our heavenly Father.

 

Through all the people saying that this is the most precious thing that they have ever seen and commenting on how cute we look, Dad says.

 

"You look like a deranged Easter bunny." Those who made us put on the costume say emphatically "No, [s]he doesn't!"

 

Dad says, "Are you happy wearing that?"

 

We shake heads as hard and fast as we can, no. NO! I'm not happy wearing this!

 

"Do you want to take it off?" he says.

 

We nod.

 

"Take it off!" He says loudly.

 

Isn't that wonderful? Ralphie was able to just go upstairs and take off the bunny jammies. Can our lives really be like this?

 

I think it's yes and no.

 

See, we all walk around in the pink bunny pajamas. We all wear something that we hate. Something that makes our lives hell. Something that makes us want to crawl into a hole and hide from it and from ourselves. Sometimes it's a coat of regret or worry or sorrow, sometimes it's a mask that covers pain, shame, fear, tears. But we all have something. We wear it because "aunt Clara" went through all the trouble to make it.

 

What does that mean? It means that we wear it so that we don't hurt anyone's feelings. We don't tell our friends or family or spouse how miserable we are because it will hurt them. It will put them out. The truth will hurt. They will get mad with us. We will have to start over. It will lead to divorce. It will make us vulnerable. It will show what we presume as weakness.

 

We wear the bunny.

 

But then, oh then, we have our Father who will step in and says, "You look like a pink nightmare." I imagine that my life and my pajamas do make me look like a nightmare. If you could see all of the things that you carry and wear, don't you think that it would look a bit nightmarish? I know mine would.

 

Our father calls attention to the fact that what we are wearing around is ugly.

 

Then He asks the most wonderful question of all. "Do you want to take it off?"

 

Let that sink in....

 

"Do you want to take it off?"

 

Do you want to take off the pain and shame and bitterness and sorrow and regret and fear and feelings of inadequacy? Do you want to stop living in this mask? In this costume? Do you want to lay off all the things that make us look like a nightmare?

 

God gives us the opportunity to take off all those old things. Now, I imagine that Ralphie tore off that whole onesie in like 2 seconds. But for us, it may not happen that quickly. We may start with the mask. Then a sock or a shirt. I imagine that he has to ask continually, "Are you happy wearing that? Do you want to take it off?"

 

In Lamentations 3:22-23 in the King James Version of the Christian Bible it says:

²² It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions [mercies] fail not.

²³ They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

 

This is one instance that I really like the KJV. "It is because of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed..." so because the Lord is merciful we don't have to wear that pink bunny forever.

 

"They are new every morning..." Every. Morning. So every morning He will ask you. "Are you happy wearing that? Do you want to take it off?" Everyday we have a new chance to start over. A new chance to make a change and to take off the pink bunny, even if it is just one piece at a time.

 

Ralphie's father and our Father know what is really important. Not that we make aunt Clara or anyone else for that matter happy by wearing a disguise, but that we are happy.

 

I can say that I know that I'm wearing the jammies. Those bunny faces look up at me everyday and torture me. Maybe tomorrow I can pull off one of their eyes or something. Maybe the next day I will throw that fluffy tail down on the ground and stomp it like it was full of bees.

 

Everyday I want to remind myself that my Father is asking, "Are you happy wearing that? Do you want to take it off?" Everyday I want to try to peel off a piece of the dreaded pink bunny.

 

So what about you? Are you happy wearing that? (Whatever 'that' may be for you) Do you want to take it off? We are coming quickly to the start a new year. Let this be your year. Let this be the year that you take off the bunny pajamas that you have been wearing for years because Aunt Clara may show up. We cannot truly LIVE our lives wearing those jammies. We cannot be who WE are, we cannot be happy, we cannot be fulfilled, we cannot be all that we were made to be if we live our lives wearing a costume filled with all the things that make us ugly and afraid.

 

If you need to lose weight, well try your hardest to do that. If you need to be true to you, do it. If you need to end a relationship even though it will be scary, you need to take off the bunny suit. You will never be happy with it on.

 

And remember. If it all doesn't come off today, tomorrow our Father will offer new mercies, and He will ask again if we are happy in our costume, and He will offer again to let us take it off.