When an Enormous Rabbit Finds You

I'm walking through campus to my office with my head looking down into the concrete.  I'm deep in thought about something I can't recall.  I just remember that I wasn't really seeing the sidewalk, and I couldn't even remember how I got to campus.

Those autopilot mornings--the ones where it's all routine and no beauty and rich presence--happen way too frequently in my life.

All of a sudden, a huge brown rabbit hops right by my feet, sits down, and stares at me.

"Excuse me, Enormous Rabbit," I say and watch him slowly edge to the grass where he slips under a bush.  He stays there, watching me.

A Rabbit on Campus

Now I'm really here.  You can't help but experience the day when God sends an Enormous Rabbit to shake you from complacency. 

I look to my left and right.  Does anybody see this giant rabbit?  It's quiet on campus this early, so I'm the only one around.  I kneel down and notice the deep black eyes and soft ears.  I find myself enamored with his beautiful fur and his adorable little nose.  He doesn't run away.  We stay there, watching each other.  Meanwhile, my mug of coffee has poured out onto the sidewalk.  But it doesn't matter; there's a rabbit here! A beautiful, glorious rabbit!

"I'm going to take a picture of you," I say to the rabbit.  So I do. He actually seems to pose for it.

All day, I remember the Enormous Rabbit who blocked my path on campus. It's an Alice in Wonderland kind of day now, but it didn't begin this way.  

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Did something happen today to shake you from an autopilot morning?

Fighting Before Church is Even Better

The whole family just erupts this morning.  We can't control ourselves!  We're all fighting, and one child cries enormous tears while another screams, "You just make me so mad!" 

I could have pretended that everyone was OK this morning.  I wanted to!  I really did.  I could have wiped my daughter's face and plastered a smile.  Instead, I walk through the church doors and tell everyone what a mess we are today.  Guess what?  I'm not the only one.  So many other families had horrible mornings. 

We're all a mess, and it feels so good to admit it. 

Isn't that what church is for? 

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Was there fighting in your house this morning, too?  

How We Captured Essential Oils From Nature (A Great Experiment for Kids!)

My daughter wants to make real perfume from nature for her science project this year.  I'm learning that she wants to discover the essence of things.

She researches ways to get the fragrance out of the flowers and into little vials for students to guess the essence she's extracted.  She wants rose, grass, orange, cocoa, and lily to start.

Sweet Smelling Roses

We learn that you can, in fact, capture the essence of something.  You can distill it by creating steam (which picks up the essential oil of the flower) and cooling the steam (which then you can catch in a bowl). The bowl of cooled steam, in theory, will contain water and the oil from the rose.  The oil will separate from the water in the bowl, and we can use that oil for our perfume.  

"Will this work?" we ask my husband.  He's the one with the graduate degree in chemistry.

"Yes," he tells us.  I'm so excited!  I'm filled with wonder at the thought of seeing the essential oils.  I'm amazed that you can actually distill a fragrance out of something.  We find easy directions here.   

My daughter fills the pot with rose petals, and we place a brick inside the pot to elevate our collecting bowl.

Then, we let the rose petals simmer on the stove with a bowl of ice sitting on top of the pot.  When the steam hits the icy bowl, it condenses and falls back into our collecting bowl.

This way, we capture the essential oil in the condensed water.

A few hours later, we pour out the collecting bowl.  The top layer of water is oil!  I can't believe it!  We captured the essence of the rose!

Capturing Essential Oil for Perfume

We can make perfume, potpourri, soap, bubble bath, or anything we want with that wonderful smell of rose.  We immediately move on to capture orange oil. 

I'm amazed at the process of capturing essence.   Distill means to purify--to separate out--that thing I wanted, that one true thing.  It requires such extremes of heat and cold.  In my own heart, I think about the extreme places of pain and joy, sorrow and rejoicing.  I think about times of instability and unrest.  In the midst of this dramatic process, God distills some essential thing.

He does it because that fragrance released can bless a hurting world. 
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What thing in nature would you want to capture the essence of?