Winnie the Pooh - A. A. Milne & E. H. Shpeherd

In our house Winnie the Pooh was a great lesson in whimsy. When we first introduced it to our children one absolutely LOVED the silly old bear and the the other couldn't abide him! "But he never did what he set out to do!" one of them exclaimed as the story wound to it's close. "It would be nice to wander in a wood for a bit..." the other sighed. And that, my friends, is proof that you never get two kids the same! For those who haven't wandered the Hundred Acre Wood recently, here's what happens;

Winnie the Pooh lives with his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. He isn't a very clever bear and that leads to many a hap-hazard adventure. In one outing he hears bees and then spends the day trying to get their honey by floating in the sky by holding onto a balloon - pretending he's a cloud. The bees are not fooled.

Despite his hair brained schemes Winnie - or Edward to give him his proper name - has managed to charm almost everyone he meets. And he betrays one very great human truth - we are ruled by our desires.

Winnie the Pooh is obsessed with honey. The mere whiff of it and he is distracted for the rest of the day. He can do nothing whilst thinking of honey and when there is no honey left, he is thinking of how to get more. It is the cause of his misfortune numerous times and yet he never fails to believe each time that it will satisfy. Sound familiar?!

It never fails to amaze me how great our capacity as people is to place our trust and affections in the wrong thing. And while we may have never been left dangling on the end of a balloon string twenty feet up in the air in our pursuits of satisfaction, I know from my own life, that I have been in situations where I might as well have been! Pooh Bear gets stung and chased. He falls and rolls and gets spiked by a thorn bush. Even the honey he does manage to get only lasts for a short time - a very short time in fact! And then he is left bruised and lacking the very things he thought would bring him happiness.

When I saw a teenager, I desperately wanted a pair of Adidas trainers. I saved

and saved for ages and when the day finally came I went down the market and made the purchase - these babies were going to change my life! So long had I waited for them that, at the last minute before making the purchase, I decided to swap the size from my usual size 6 to a size 8, so that, in the event I grew, they would still fit and my life would remain on it's correct course. I am now 42 years old and still a size 6 shoe. On reflection I looked like a clown wearing them. And owing to them being mas-hooo-sive I couldn't actually walk very well in them. They did not change my life. Not unless you count the fact that I tripped a lot more than I did pre-Adidas trainers.

I haven't changed - I mean, am not still wearing the trainers - but my heart hasn't changed. I am prepared to look anywhere other than to God for my desires to be fulfilled. Stuff, family, activities, my house, literally anything, despite the fact the the Bible tells me quite clearly this...

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4v19

Pooh Bear and I have the same fundamental misunderstanding - my desires are not the same as my needs. Simply because I think I need it does not make it good for me. Winnie the Pooh does not actually need honey. He just likes it. But instead of enjoying it as a good gift from God he puts it in the very place God should sit.

The truth is my desires and my needs could be the same thing, if they were in line with God's desires. If I would desire what He saw wisely to provide. But I don't. I think I'm being short changed by God when I don't get what I want. In short I feel God owes me. And yet God continues to meet all of my needs, regardless of my distracted pursuits of 'better things'. He faithfully and lovingly provides and provides and provides again, each time teaching me that He is what I need and what I should desire. Only in Him can I find true satisfaction.

Our little Pooh Bears will need this lesson also, sometimes it will take being stung to learn that, sometimes it will take being stung many times. But know this, it is better to have your desires realigned again and again by the One who loves you more than you could know, than to keep pursuing what will only ever leave you for dead in the end.

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Winnie the Pooh - Paper Story

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