The Rabbit's Tail

In certain sectors of life right now, the prognosis seems dire.  In pinched times, it can be easy to revert to survival instinct.  The sentiment of some AI engineers is this is the “last chance to be a part of the innovation” before all human beings are frozen in their current class positions.  Everyone should scramble now to build as much wealth for themselves as they can before it is too late.

Reading that made me start to think again about the rabbit’s tail.  The rabbit tail is a curious feature to biologists, precisely because it doesn’t serve individual survival, but instead acts like a flashing white bullseye flag for any lurking predators.  Why on earth would the rabbit alert a predator to its moving presence rather than deflect it? The best guess is that the rabbit’s sacrifice serves to warn all the other rabbits around it, to the imminent danger nearby.   Contra survival of the fittest, careful biological observation indicates the cleverness of the animal kingdom is connected to collaboration rather than individual might, whether between archaea and bacteria, meerkats with a sentry, or even the pecking order of chickens, where the lowest are pecked but protected by the social process.

This should come as no surprise to followers of Jesus, who trust the Son as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, and reconciled to himself all things on earth and heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:15-16, 20).  Just like the rabbit’s tail, Jesus waving of the white flag on the cross makes peace for all of us.

There’s actually a long Christian history of chronicling the wonders of creation and specifically, strange and familiar animals who bring wonder into our world, called bestiaries.  These illustrated books nudge as toward spiritual lessons, reminding us God has designed this world, and that the book of creation is invariably tied to the book of Scripture.    So the rabbit’s tail, the collective beehive, or the work of a tree grove, point us toward mutual relationship and sacrifice.

And that’s what we strive, however imperfectly, to learn here at Lanesville.  We are committed to growing with Christ, but also with each other, into the image of God, becoming like those rabbits, creatures who in times of fear don’t scramble to build as much wealth as we can for ourselves, but make peace through our sacrifice, so others can find safety too.