I sat at a red light waiting to turn left and noticed a small thing moving across the center of the roadway. It was a little gray field mouse, scampering a foot or two at a time -pausing, re-deciding to move forwards (or sideways-forwards). And foot by foot he scampered towards two lanes of fast-moving traffic.
It was nerve wracking for me because I knew exactly where that mouse was and what lay ahead of it and the danger and how each decision the mouse made could be its last. I could see and know what the mouse could neither see nor know. The little mouse came within inches of a car, discovered it had just narrowly avoided being hit, moved backwards quickly but then again turned back towards the traffic and tempted crossing that first lane again.
I wanted to tell it to stop moving forwards! Don’t go that way! (And yes I did actually shout these things at it while sitting in fear in my car.) I longed for it to hear me and understand me. I wanted it to realize it could just move to the center island and find safety. I wanted to tell all the people that were whizzing by that there was a little mouse and please please please don’t hit it!
But instead my light turned green just as the mouse once again darted in front of whizzing cars and I stopped looking. I knew the odds weren’t in its favor – especially if it insisted on crossing the road. But maybe, just maybe it would by some miracle make it safely across or decide to turn back to the center island.
This incident left me reflecting.
How often am I that mouse? How often is God there shouting at me “Please please please stop what you are doing! Just look towards me and see that I offer you safety.”
How many times do I hear Him and so listen and turn back towards Him? How many times do I just plow ahead and do what I want to do and go where I want to go because it is what I want to do?
Unlike the field mouse if I listen I can hear and understand what God wants of me and where he is calling me to go and what he is calling me to avoid. Unlike the field mouse I have a way of being rescued from my situation by praying, listening, and trusting in God. But like the field mouse I often just do what I want to do despite the potential harm – for both the life of my body and the life of my soul.
I don’t want to be a little gray field mouse running hopelessly through a dangerous intersection. I don’t want to just listen to myself and think I know best when God is there knowing how best to lead me to Him. I long to recognize when I am like that little gray field mouse running amid danger and stop myself and let God guide me to His safety.
Photo Phootnote: Yes, I know that is a baby squirrel. I do not have any pictures of little gray field mice. But maybe someday I will?
Give God Your Yes 