Rabbit Looks For God

One day, a rabbit set out from the woods, carrying a question to all the other creatures that it met. The rabbit came first to a butterfly fluttering in an open field, and asked, "Friend butterfly, what can you tell me about the thing called 'god’?"

The butterfly thought for a moment, and said, "God is the guiding wind that blows me from this field to that one and points me to where the weather is warm and I can help the flowers bloom by flying from one to another." The rabbit thanked the butterfly, and continued on its journey. Coming to a horse who was grazing at the other end of the field, the rabbit hopped up and asked, "Friend horse, what can you tell me about the thing called 'god’?"

The horse looked at the rabbit, still chewing away at the sweet grass and said, "God is the ground that holds me up, gives folks an open field to walk and run against and all this lovely grass to eat." The rabbit thanked the horse, and hopped further onward. A little while later, it came to a slow-running stream, and peaking over the bank, the rabbit saw a fish. The rabbit dipped its mouth into the water to ask "Friend fish, what can you tell me about the thing called 'god’?" Then the rabbit raised its head back up and put one ear into the water to listen for the answer.

The fish replied, "God is water I swim in: it surrounds me all the time, and gives me something to breath and move through. Its something that everyone needs to live." The rabbit thanked the fish, bounded off again, and very soon after almost ran right into a tree. Craning its head upwards to look towards the very topmost branches, the rabbit asked, "Friend tree, what can you tell me about the thing called 'god’?"

The tree answered slowly, but without hesitating, "God is the sun that feeds me and all of my neighbors and family; I spend all of my days reaching upwards towards it, and encouraging the shorter trees to do the same." The rabbit thanked the tree, and, seeing that it was getting late in the day, set off to go back home for the night. As the rabbit was approaching its den, its neighbor, the squirrel, called out from nearby, "Friend rabbit, after your day of asking the same question over and over, what can you tell me about the thing called 'god’?"

The rabbit thought for a very long time, and then said, "I can tell you that the butterfly cares deeply for the flowers, the horse wants everyone to have open fields to roam on, the fish knows everyone needs water to live, and the tree hopes its children will grow as tall is it has grown." And then the rabbit went down into its burrow, and slept for the night.