Of Mice and Us

Jacques and Gus Gus – Cinderella’s friends. Miss Bianca from “The Rescuers” or Mrs. Brisby from “The Secret of NIMH.” Jerry (from Tom & Jerry), and Speedy Gonzales. Fievel Mousekewitz from “An American Tail,” Mighty Mouse and Chuck E. Cheese. Of course, we cannot forget Mickey and Minnie.  

I was thinking of mice today because Renée and I currently dealing with some unwanted houseguests or should I say back sunporch guests to be exact and it got me to thinking. Isn’t it fascinating how we love mice in stories and movies? They are cute and cuddly. Bold and courageous. Yet, in real life, uh, not so much. In real life, they are so destructive that we set out traps and buy poison. Why the disparity? How does one get from the adorable Stuart Little to D-Con? A good press agent I suppose. No. We eagerly suspend the reality before our eyes and choose to believe a fantasy. We should never easily disregard human willingness to reject truth.

God was clear with Adam and Eve. Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Just one tree. Everything else was at their disposal. One rule. One tree. Satan comes along in Genesis 3:1 and asks, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” Or to paraphrase Groucho Marx, “Who you gonna’ believe, me or your lying ears?” Well, we know how that story went.

My prayer is that Christians would not need a press agent. That we would always be the same on Sunday morning as we are the rest of the week. The kind of people our dogs believe we are. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:21, “We [he, Titus, and others] are careful to be honorable before the Lord, but we also want everyone else to see that we are honorable.” Titus would later write, “Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching” (Titus 2:7).

I know, it is hard to always do what God wants us to, but if we are not who we proclaim to be, who will listen to anything we have to say? We want people to believe with both their ears and eyes when they encounter a follower of Jesus. After washing His disciple’s feet, Jesus said, “I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you” (John 13:15). 

Let’s strive to be Mighty Mouse all the time so people will listen to us when we tell them about “Who has come to save the day!”          

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