God's Smile

(Twila Belk)

When my husband, Steve, and I were dating, his nickname was Rabbit. So, naturally, when we got married, rabbits made an appearance. I wore a gold rabbit necklace with my wedding dress. Rabbit figurines stood proudly in front of our wedding cake. We even served rabbit-shaped mints. We had big plans to name our future children Peter, Jack, and Bunny.

I fully embraced the theme in the following years—collecting stuffed rabbits, ceramic rabbits, rabbit dishes, rabbit knick-knacks and doodads, and just about every kind of rabbit you can imagine—except for the live ones.

In our first house, I displayed most of my collection in a spare bedroom on top of the piano and along one wall. We called it the bunny room. When the time came to turn that room into a nursery, we pulled up the old shag carpet, and underneath it were aged, off-white, vinyl tiles.

Tucked among the plain squares was a surprise—a single tile printed with Bugs Bunny! And it wasn’t in the center of the room, but right where the bulk of my rabbits had been, beneath the piano. I couldn’t help but sense God’s smile and envision a twinkle in His eye.

After Steve died in April 2021, I came across that rabbit tile again while putzing around in my basement’s storage room. I framed it, and it now hangs below my husband's picture in the bedroom. Every time I see it, I’m reminded of the joy we shared, the sweetness of small surprises, and the unmistakable smile of God on my life.