A Story About A Snake, A Mouse, and Help

A little gray mouse scurried across the countertop looking for food.  The mouse laughed about avoiding all harm and tricking the owner of the house.  Yes, everyone had warned him about the dangers of going into the house.  “But look at me now,” he said, “large and in-charge!”

Then came a tantalizing whiff, a smell the little mouse could not resist.  Jumping from the counter to what the mouse thought was a solid surface, the mouse found himself tumbling downwards, head over heels.  Suddenly the unsuspecting mouse found himself on the floor of a glass cage.  The mouse looking through the glass walls, tried to jump out, saying to himself, “I can get out this problem, I don’t need help.”  

The floor was covered in sawdust.  The mouse smugly smiled and started to push the sawdust into a pile along the glass wall.  “Yup, this will work, I can build this pile high enough so that I can just jump out.”  Working tirelessly, the little mouse was sure he had solved the problem.

But, then, in a flash, things quickly went from bad to worse.  Curled up in the corner of the cage, in a bed of sawdust slept a snake.  The tiny mouse had a life-threatening problem on his hands.  At any moment, the snake could awake and swallow him alive.  Obviously, the mouse had to devise a brilliant plan.

Trembling and terrified, the mouse contemplated, “What to do, what to do?” Then, like a bolt of lightning, the idea came to him.  And, just as quickly, he implemented his plan.  He rushed toward the snake, pushing the sawdust in front of him.  With all the energy he had left, he piled the sawdust chips on the snake, covering the snake completely.

With what little vigor he had left, the mouse took a step back and sighed, “There, I am so smart, I have covered up the problem, it’s gone now.”   As he turned away from the snake, the mouse realized he had used all the sawdust to cover the snake.  He had inadvertently destroyed his way out.

Does this story remind you of anyone?  How about Eve.  When she was faced with danger, what did she do?  Did she deny or acknowledge that sin was facing her?  Did she accept her lack of power to solve the problem, reaching to God for help?

No matter how hard we work to cover up and deny our sinful nature, it’s fool’s work.  Sin will eventually wake up and shake off its cover.  All alone, we tend to run off people who can help us.  We think we have the power to save ourselves.  We believe we can fix ourselves.  Were it not for the saving grace of the Master’s hand, sin would eat us alive.

At CR, you will find friends who have stopped denying their hurts, hang-up, and harmful habits. 

Even if our hurts, hang-ups, and destructive habits are different than yours,
we are here, with God’s grace, to help.