A Mouse's Story

Please Welcome Beth Pittman back to the Cafe as today's Guest Barista!
(otherwise known as Mrs. Human)

Sometimes, God reminds me of his promises in the most surprising and unusual things…

His steely little eyes shifted back and forth as he sat huddled on the floor.

The humans had left the house and, now, in the quiet, he realized he had the whole house to himself. “What to do?” he asked himself.

He recalled the room with the swinging door that he had visited the night before. There had been something tasty in that room and the thought of it now set his mouth to watering. “That’s it”, he thought, “I’ll go back there.” He scampered across the kitchen floor and headed for the room protected by the swinging door. It didn’t close tightly so he sucked himself in and squeezed through the crack that was left as the door stood ajar. And then, he saw it! The vision of the trash can from the night before that he had pushed into the far regions of his brain was now a reality staring him right in his whiskery little face. This was too good to be true.

He had seen Mr. Human take out the trash can earlier that morning. Now, it stood before him, tall and majestic. He looked up but there was nothing bulging out of the top of it like there was earlier. That was interesting, he thought to himself. Maybe there was something that he couldn’t see still in there….but how was he going to get to the top to find out?

There on the floor beside the trash can was a broom. Mrs. Human hadn’t sat it completely back up in the corner and it was at just the perfect angle for him to crawl up and take a peek inside. His little feet quickly shuffled over to the broom and he carefully picked his way along the handle – slipping once but correcting himself so that once again he was balanced on the broom. He sniffed and shuffled, sniffed and shuffled until finally he had arrived, but then, his worst nightmare was realized! He found himself staring into the deep, vast emptiness of the trash can. He pointed his little nose down towards the bottom – sniff, sniff, sniff – nothing!

But wait!

What was that in the bottom of the can? His eyebrows raised and his tail twitched. He bent over a little further on the slippery broomstick and sniffed again and again. Yes, there was something gooey down there but he just couldn’t tell what. If he could only get just a little closer. He perched on the edge of the broomstick handle and clutched his tiny paws around it, and then he leaned in. Just a little bit closer, he thought. The scent of the gooey substance set every sense in his tiny little body on end. He strained to get a better whiff when all of a sudden the broomstick started to slide away and with that, his view of the inside of the can began to slide away as well.

What was he to do?

It was either hang on for dear life as the broom made its way to the floor or jump.

Jump?

That would be like jumping off the Empire State Building. The drop would probably knock him silly but, but … he would be there in the bottom of the can with the gooey treat. He only had a split second to decide as his stomach growled. The decision was made – he made a giant leap into the can. The broom noisily fell away and he couldn’t tell if it was the sound of the broom hitting the floor or his head hitting the side of the can that was keeping such a racket. Dazed, he sat for a moment, but then he realized he had survived.

He opened one eye and then the other. He blinked and then he opened both eyes, wider this time, and there in front of him was the goo that he had risked life and limb for. He sniffed and slowly inched closer and closer. His nose was almost touching it when he realized that it no longer smelled like what he first imagined as he was leaning on the broom handle.

In fact, it smelled like…. flowers? Maybe he had died after all. He shuffled another inch forward and touched it with his nose this time. Oh, it wasn’t goo at all!! It was a fuzzy lintball that looked like yummy goo from the top of the can.

Oh, what had he done?

He looked up at the four steep walls of the can - there was no escape. He jumped, he flipped, he slid, but the sides were too slick and too steep. He jumped and he jumped and he jumped until he was exhausted. He would never get out of this mess he had gotten himself into. Discouraged and tired, he backed into a corner of the can and sat… and breathed and sniffed. His eyes became heavy and soon he succumbed to blissful, worriless sleep. He dreamed of a big block of cheese that kept moving away from him and then, suddenly, he was jarred awake.

It was Mr. Human talking to Mrs. Human. Mr. Human was looking into the can! Oh no! He had been discovered – his life was over!!

Mrs. Human said something that sounded like “flush him down the toilet”, if you can understand such things when they are squealed. Mr. Human picked up the trash can and started out of the cozy room where all the fun had began into the bright kitchen. His fate was sealed. His last moments would be spent staring at the inside of a toilet bowl.

But what was this?

Mr. Human walked across the kitchen to the door that led outside. Could there be hope?

Could it possibly be???

The door opened and Mr. Human with trash can in tow walked outside. He walked and he walked and he walked and then finally he stopped.

He tipped the trash can over and gave it a hoist and out the little mouse flew. He landed softly on the soft thick grass. He had been saved. But why?

He was just a stinky little mouse who had made a lot of really bad decisions, who had taken what Mr. Human had without even caring what kind of mess he made of things. So, why then would Mr. Human spare his life when he deserved to be flushed down the toilet? He sat and he sat, he pondered and he wondered. And then, it came to him. A tear came to his eye as he sat there in the grass. It was a wonderful, miraculous thought. Mr. Human didn’t want him to die. To Mr. Human, there was more joy in the saving than in the dying. And with that thought, the little mouse ran with glee into the comfort of the nice, safe, warm barn.

Moral of the story: Don’t let temptation cause you to wander where you think you belong but really don’t, and when you do, remember that there’s Someone much bigger than you waiting to set you free.

"But when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior." Titus 3:4-6

In Him,

Mrs. Human

Mrs. Human, whose name is actually Beth, is a wife and mother of 3 grown children and has been married for 30 years to Mr. Human, whose real name is Steve. The mouse in this story doesn’t have a name but was actually quite real and was found in the bottom of Beth’s trash can very much alive and so the inspiration for this story. She believes that God uses the even the little things in our lives to speak lessons to us. Beth was raised in a Christian home with loving Christian parents, but it wasn’t until she was 32 that she really understood that Jesus loved and died for her and what that meant for her individually. Her life has never been the same since. She would love to have you visit her at her blog “Lifeboat Moments” at www.lifeboatmoments.blogspot.com