Mouse in the Pantry!

This is one mama that cannot abide mice in her pantry.

In all the fourteen years we have lived here in this house, we've succeeded to have only a few episodes of mice in our house.

In the garage, yes, but not in the house.

And I know, most people don't take pictures of the mouse droppings they discover one day in their pantry shelf.

But I do. 

Because--as I was gagging over this disgusting sight that met my eyes, and getting a rag and starting to clean it up (and yeah, it must have been those spilled peanuts that attracted the mouse,

but how on earth did a mouse get all the way to this high a shelf?)

well, as I was saying, I was in the middle of cleaning up those black things

when I had to look closer, and I discovered that they weren't mouse droppings!

They were grains of black rice from this bag!!

What an enormous relief!

So I wasn't this awful mama, after all, who has mice in her pantry!

And what a relief it is to discover in other ways, too,

that what we think are mouse droppings,

what we think are bad, dreadful, disgusting circumstances or events in our lives,

can be turned by God into something useful down the road.

What we think has been a ruinous mouse in our pantry

could turn out to be seed grain--something life giving and fruitful, something from which we will gain strength if we humbly accept it into our lives, 

work with it, 

absorb it,

digest it,

learn from it.

We need to also watch that we take closer looks at what appears to be bad things in our own or other people's lives.

Because what we misunderstood to be black mouse droppings might be black rice--

something to make a unique and tasty dish from.

What appears to be a disaster or a tragedy can be used by God as a gift to us.

What appears to be an action or attitude that had a wrong motive--

may, after inquiry or closer scrutiny, have been something truly meant well.

It is kind of embarrassing to call attention to mouse droppings, and to react by making a commotion and grabbing rags and disinfectant spray,

only to discover that it is black rice!

 It can be kind of humiliating to call something a toad,

or a frog or a salamander,

and then discover we had the story backwards and upside down--

or at least dreadfully skewed.

Thankfully, some mouse dropping stories have a good ending.

And thankfully not all the clouds on the horizon end up bringing hail to our gardens.

There is more knee work than we know what to do with--

and not just mopping up the floor with a rag because the mop handle broke in two.

Heavenly Father, there are plenty of mice and little black problems all around us,

but help us not to suspicion every black grain of rice in our pantry as a mouse dropping!

Teach us to live freely, openly, fully and trustingly.

Let Your blood cleanse every stain, and cover all the areas in which we need to improve.

Wash us in Your blood,
and keep us in Your wonderful care!