A Mouse Story

Jesus often used parables to teach lessons. I wonder if he would have sent emails to people, or forwarded stories that he received by email...

I received this story by email from my cousin (whose name is also Nancy, how cool is that?) It's about a mouse, AND it even tells the lesson at the end. I wish sometimes Jesus' parables were as easily understood.

So.....

A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see a farmer and his wife open a package. "What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. 

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, "I am very sorry Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse then turned to the cow and exclaimed, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Well, Mr. Mouse, I am so sorry for you, but it's really no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey. The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was not a mouse, but a venomous snake, whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital, but she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbors cam to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well, and sadly, she died. 

So many people came to her funeral that the farmer had to slaughter the cow to provide enough food for all the mourners.

From a crack in the wall, throughout all of these events, the mouse looked upon it all with great sadness.

What do you think the lesson here is?

The next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and you don't think it concerns you, remember

when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this life journey. It's important to pray for people and it's important to look out for them whenever we can, helping whenever possible.

I'll be looking out for all of you...