Mouse Traps - When Did We See You Hungry?
Mouse Traps – When Did We See You Hungry?
Of course, we all know the parable of the goats and the sheep at the last judgment found in Matthew 25. The poignant question hangs in the air “When did we see you hungry, naked, in prison…”
I recently came across a secular parable that expresses a similar insight … especially into the goats who did not recognize Jesus as he presented himself. Here I ask you to read this next section. Does “The parable of the Mousetrap” sound like the same message Jesus was trying to give?
The Parable of the Mouse Trap shows us our unknown connections
A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the 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 so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!” The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s 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 – like 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 it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh 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 came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died.
So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.
The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember, when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another. Each of us is a vital thread in another person’s tapestry.
The story is all over the internet, even if the author seems to be unknown. There are also videos telling the story in a variety of ways.
For me, it also echoes what St. Paul was driving at in I Corinthians 12 when he describes the relationship among the various parts of the body of Christ..
Questions
- Do I see the unnoticed connections in life?
- Does this parable you better understand the point both Jesus and Paul were making?
1 Comment
Thanks for the inspiring message. I have never read this story, and that kept me reading the message. Indeed, we need to support one another. The way of Christ. God bless us all.