Sunbonnet
Soliloquy
There is a time for all things, the Bible says. “A time to every
purpose under the sun.”
If this be true -- and it is -- it follows that there should be a place
for all things.
In the famous “Uncle Remus” stories written a century ago by Joel
Chandler Harris, the sassy Br’er Rabbit had to resort to all manner of trickery
and wit to escape from Br’er Fox.
One morning when Br’er Fox had Br’er Rabbit tied up to a tree with a
grapevine and was threatening to skin him alive, Br’er Rabbit suddenly began
laughing and laughing. Then, he started
to cry pitifully and begged Br’er Fox to please -- before he skinned him alive
-- to let him go to his “Laughing Place”, just one more time.
“Your Laughing Place?” Br’er
Fox asked.
“Yes, Br’er Fox,” the rabbit answered, in so many words. “That’s where
I go when things get so funny I just can’t keep from splittin’ my sides! Please lem’ me go! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Please tern’ me go to my Laughing
Place. Just one more time. Ha!
Ha! Ha! You wouldn’t want to skin me alive till
after I have me one more good laugh, would you, Br’er Fox?”
“I reckon not, Br’er Rabbit.”
So Br’er Fox untied the grapevine around Br’er Rabbit’s neck and he
scooted away to his Laughing Place.
And he laughed and laughed. And
he never came back.
Not long ago I read of a Praying Place -- in Georgia. It is a tiny concrete block chapel which
stands beside U.S. 17 in Mcintosh County, its white trim fading and peeling,
its dusty Bible always open on the little altar.
Tourists stop there. Some leave
donations of money. Some leave clothing
for the needy. Nobody ever leaves a name, just the offerings.
God only knows what prayers they say.
A recent issue of the Memphis, Tennessee ‘Commercial Appeal” reprinted, from its files of 125
years ago, a special plea about the improvement of a park area. The one
paragraph statement said:
“At the request of the committee for the improvement of Court Square, Col. Finnie, we desire to request that someone from the country coming to the city will supply him with some dozen or more young squirrels, for which he will pay a reasonable compensation. He is about to bring the improvements of Court Square to a close, and he desires to ornament it with a number of these tenants of the forest.”
Yes, there should be places for all things, for all people.
Life is such, though, that each person must ornament his own park, as
best he can. Each must find a place to
pray. And each can make a Laughing
Place.
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; behold, all
things are become new.
Published May 1983.
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