HONEY BEAR

Hi, My name is HONEY BEAR.

One day I was playing hide and seek while everyone was sleeping. I quietly hid under Nanny’s draperies, beside the bed in Florida.

The next morning, the house was quiet. No one was home. Everyone had gone to the airport to take my family home to Canada. No one could find me. I heard the family searching everywhere for me. Nanny was even down on her hands and knees looking for me. Papa opened every drawer and cupboard. I saw them all looking and felt sure that they would find me soon. If I could see them, why couldn’t they see me? “Here I am,” I called in my best Honey Bear voice and no one heard me. Everyone gave up and left me alone in my hiding place. After all, they had a plane to catch. I was not going to be on that plane.

Nanny and Poppa came home from the airport. They took the baby bed apart and put it in storage. Still no one saw me there. Why was everyone so blind? I began to cry and still no one found me. An entire, lonely  week past.

Every time Nanny or Papa opened or closed the drapes I felt sure they would see me. Every night I heard Papa snoring. I saw Nanny reading and napping. I saw everything they did in their bedroom. Not once did they notice me.

After a while, I became very lonely. I wanted Ashlyn to play with me. I began to cry. I wish Ashlyn would come back. I heard Nanny say that they likely wouldn’t be back until next winter. Ashlyn would be eight then. Would she still love me and want to play with me?

One day,   I heard Nanny ask Poppa to vacuum the bedroom.  He does a good job, but doesn’t always consider the corners. Would Pappa suck me up in the vacuum? I hope he misses my corner. I will be very nervous if Papa brings that huge, loud, sucking vacuum near me.

THEN, I had an  idea. If I held on tightly to the drapes, when the vacuum comes near, Poppa will have to take both me and the drapes up into the vacuum. Maybe he will notice me then. I held my breath and held tightly to the drapes. I wish Ashlyn were here. She would rescue me from the beastly vacuum cleaner.

All of a sudden the vacuum cleaner stopped. Silence filled the air. Poppa abruptly left the room.

”Oh no,”  I thought, “He’ll never see me now or maybe my life has just been spared.” That vacuum is still too close for comfort!

Suddenly, I heard both Nanny and Poppa coming into the bedroom. They were moving quickly closer to me. I heard Pappa talking.

“I want you to see something,” he said. They were always looking out of the windows  and never noticed me, so I thought there was some bird or  turtle out there.

All of a sudden, Nanny said, “PRAISE THE LORD” and I felt loving hands cuddling me. They were much bigger hands that I was used to but that’s okay.

Ashlyn was used to those hands. They were her Nanny’s hands, laughing and almost crying with joy because she had found me. I smiled at Nanny and Poppa. I wasn’t lonely any more.

I heard Nanny dial Ashlyn’s phone number and heard the joy in her voice when she told Ashlyn that I had been found and that they would bring me home to Ashlyn in a few weeks. I smiled my biggest smile, but Ashlyn couldn’t see me. Nanny cuddled me a little longer and then put me up on Pappa’s big dresser to look at myself in the mirror. I could see that my eyes were swollen from crying for an entire week. But Nanny’s cuddles dried all my tears.

Until I go home, if I feel lonely for Ashlyn, I can look at her picture because Nanny sat me right beside Ashlyn’s family picture on the dresser.

Nanny said I could send one message to Ashlyn, so I said, “Tell her that I love her and I will see her after Easter when Nanny and Pappa bring me home.

Thank you Papa for finding me”

 It was almost worth the loneliness to be cuddled by Nanny. Ashlyn was the only one who had every loved me until I was lost. Something found is treasured more.

BIBLE FACT- Jesus  loves us enough to search for us until we are found.  Angels rejoice with Him when sinners repent. Have you let Him find you? Perhaps you didn’t know you were lost!

Copyright by Marlene Bergman

Background