Day 58

 

Of Mice and Men

 

He who did not spare us his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

 

Romans 8:32

 

Mice seem to be attracted to houses that I live in. They are uninvited guests to be sure but I really can't blame them since I am a big fan of air conditioning myself.

While I don't blame the mice for wanting to move up in the world I would prefer they move up somewhere else. Being a non-violent kind of guy I used to try and catch them in one of those yuppie "let's not hurt the mouse" traps. It is a little cube that with a one way door where the mouse goes in but can't get out. The idea is like catch and release. I figured I could catch them and then release them at the home of a deacon who was giving me a hard time.

It turns out that mice don't really like to check into mouse hotels. They did like to take a dip in my pool, when I had a house with a swimming pool. What they didn't know was that my pool was like Las Vegas. What went into the pool stayed in the pool. I constantly had to toss out drowned mice into the woods behind the house.

The mice that bypassed the pool and made it into the house (through some hole I was never able to locate) always wound up in the same place. I could hear a mouse at night and find him the next morning in an old fashioned spring trap placed by the hot water heater. That location never failed. The first time we put a trap there we caught a mouse within 5 minutes.

When Ethan was a preschooler, catching a mouse was an event. We had mouse funerals. On one occasion we sang Amazing Grace and I asked Ethan to say a few words about the mouse. He said, "He had big ears." I said, "Amen."

At the graveside service I said, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, if the trap doesn't get you the cat must." Then we laid little Mickey to rest.

Humans are tough on mice. Some people have pet mice that they raise to fee to their pet snake. And will humans willingly share their spacious home with a mouse? No! And if you are a mouse you best not let a scientist get a hold of you. He'll have you running endless mazes or drinking so much coffee your nerves are shot. Or worse, some scientist will get you hooked on little mouse cigarettes to see if you get cancer.

Some people think about our relationship with God in mice and men terms. They think God is sending us through a maze of weather disasters, financial crises and relationship troubles. They believe God just keeps sending bad stuff our way to see how much we can take.

But that is not God at all. In Romans 8:32 the Bible tells us, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" God loves us and gave his best for us, his Son. The "all things" he gives us in this context refers to salvation and that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It doesn't mean that we will get all the toys we want or that we will be free of troubles. It does mean that with Christ we have all we need to overcome those troubles.

Where we live now we have solved the mouse problem with an accessory that came with the house. A cat. But if you should catch a live mouse I have a list of addresses you can send it to.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Romans 8:31-39

• Is there anyone who can bring a charge against one of God's children that could somehow separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus?
• Is there anyone who can condemn a child of God and somehow separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus?
• Can any of the things Paul mentions defeat us and separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?
•