Becoming Real: The Velveteen Rabbit and the Easter Promise

Christ is Risen! Happy Easter Sunday!

So on this solemn morning you may have woken up thinking about – chocolate bunnies, marshmallow chicks, and dyed eggs! And those are great examples of the importance of recognizing springtime renewal, just in a fun delicious way. But Easter is not just about the beauty of nature coming back to life. Easter is about reward. Like that basket of goodies the easter bunny left for you.

And the reward is heaven.

Easter is the promise that death is not the end, that this earthly life is not all there is, and that we will be given the most extraordinary gift imaginable: eternal life in the presence of God. You see, these bodies we inhabit are temporary vessels. They serve us well for a time, but they are not our permanent home. Heaven is our permanent home.

But here’s the question: If heaven is our home, how do we get there?

The Reward of the Resurrection

Think about what Jesus did. He left the perfection of heaven to come to Earth as a human being – living in one of these temporary bodies just like ours. He experienced everything we experience: joy, sadness, hunger, tiredness, friendship. And then, He allowed Himself to be crucified. He consciously took the punishment for all our mistakes, all our failures, all the ways we fall short as human beings.

It’s like someone stepping in to take the consequences for something you did wrong, even though it costs them everything. It helps you understand that He did it because He loves us.

But here’s the crucial part: Jesus actually rose from the dead. On the third day, He walked out of that tomb with a new, eternal body and returned to heaven. And this is what proves everything. Jesus’ whole journey – coming to Earth, dying, rising again – proves that He keeps His promises. He said He would conquer death, and He did. Now He promises that if we have faith in Him, He will bring us to heaven too.

When someone goes through all of that for you, you can trust them. You can have faith that they mean what they say. So how do we get to heaven? We have faith in what Jesus did for us. We believe His promise. And we live our lives in a way that honors that incredible sacrifice – not to earn our way in, but because when we accept His gift for us, we start to live differently.

This Easter Sunday, let’s explore how we prepare ourselves for heaven while living in these earthly bodies with the following reading:

2 Corinthians 4:14-5:1

We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence.

Everything indeed is for you, so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.

Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.

For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians speaks about heaven – not as some vague, distant concept, but as our certain destination. And he explains how the resurrection of Jesus makes that destination possible for us.
“We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence,” Paul declares.

We know. Not we hope. Not we believe it might be true. We know. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too will be raised. Because Jesus ascended to heaven, we too will be brought into God’s presence. Jesus proved He keeps His promises when He walked out of that tomb. And now we can trust His promise that He will bring us to heaven too.

But Paul also acknowledges the reality we all face in the meantime. “Although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

This is why Paul uses the image of a tent. These bodies are tents – temporary shelter, vulnerable, eventually falling apart. Just like Jesus lived in a temporary human body when He came to Earth, we’re living in these temporary tents for our brief time here. They serve their purpose for a season, but they were never meant to be permanent.

Heaven is our real home – a building from God, not made with hands, eternal, permanent, glorious. This is what Jesus’ sacrifice made possible for us. And while we live in these earthly tents, we prepare for that eternal building by having faith in what Jesus did and by living in a way that honors His incredible love.
Paul says we are not discouraged by the deterioration of our bodies because “this momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”

When we’re dealing with pain, loss, or the challenges of life in these temporary bodies, it rarely feels momentary or light. But from heaven’s perspective, even our worst struggles are producing something eternal within us. They’re building our faith. They’re teaching us to trust Jesus’ promise. They’re preparing us for glory.

It means we can face our mortality without despair. Yes, these tents will collapse eventually. But we have faith that Jesus will raise us up, just like He promised, just like He proved He could do. It means we can endure suffering without losing hope. Our troubles are temporary, but heaven is forever. Jesus went through far worse for us – and He did it because He loves us. That gives us courage to face whatever comes.

And it means we can live differently starting today. We don’t have to cling desperately to this earthly life as if it’s all there is. We’re free to invest in what lasts – in faith, in love, in becoming the people God created us to be. To live with gratitude for what Jesus did and with confidence that He will keep His promise to bring us home.

This is why Easter matters so profoundly. Christ is risen, and because He lives – because He proved His love and His power – heaven is open to us. Not someday as a distant possibility, but as our certain destination, secured by His sacrifice, guaranteed by His resurrection, waiting for us when this brief earthly journey is complete.

Tents, Rabbits, and Transformation

Do you remember the story of the Velveteen Rabbit? The little stuffed rabbit who wanted more than anything to become Real? The old Skin Horse tells him that Real isn’t about how you’re made—it’s about what happens to you when you’re loved. “When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.” The rabbit’s fur gets rubbed off. His whiskers fall out. His seams come loose. He becomes shabby and worn. But through being loved, he becomes Real. And at the end of the story comes the glorious transformation—he’s given a new body, a real rabbit’s body that will never wear out, and he leaps into eternal freedom in the forest.

That’s the Easter story. That’s Paul’s message about tents and buildings. Jesus entered the worn and shabby world of flesh and blood, dwelling in an earthly tent just like ours. He sacrificed His heavenly body to become one of us, vulnerable and mortal. He let His tent be destroyed—torn apart on the cross—so that we could receive the reward of eternal buildings in heaven.

Paul understood this mystery. Our outer selves are like that velveteen rabbit getting more worn and shabby with each passing day. The tent is collapsing. The seams are coming loose. But something glorious is happening at the same time—we’re being renewed day by day. Our inner selves are being prepared for the eternal building that awaits us.

This is not loss. This is transformation.

Forging Your Path to Heaven

The wearing down of the tent is not the end of the story—it’s the necessary prelude to receiving our eternal dwelling. Just as the Velveteen Rabbit had to become worn and shabby before he could be transformed into a real rabbit that would never wear out, we must live faithfully in these temporary tents to earn our eternal buildings from God.

So here is how we forge our path to heaven starting today:

Your velveteen days in this earthly tent are numbered. But every single day is an opportunity to prepare for your Real life—your resurrected, eternal, glorious life in the building God has prepared. The one who raised Jesus from the dead will raise you also. You will be transformed. You will receive your eternal dwelling. You will claim your reward.

This is not wishful thinking. This is the promise of Easter.