Have you ever found a nest of five or six baby mice? They are so tiny and cute! Maybe you wondered what to do with them, knowing that if allowed to live they would become very troublesome. If you disposed of them, the mother mouse, who scampered away when you discovered her nest, would miss them for only a little while, because soon there would be more babies to take their place.
Mice give birth around fifteen times a year, and from four to seven babies are born each time! The babies grow so fast that when the females are about forty-five days old they begin raising families of their own. If all of these mice survived, within a year’s time there would be thousands of mice, starting with the original pair. Thankfully, this never happens because most of them do not live long.
There are many kinds of mice, but most of us have seen only the little gray house mice, and they can be a real nuisance. But they are interesting little fellows, with their beady eyes, long whiskers, long, narrow snouts, round ears and long tails. They may live as long as a year in a hidden corner of an attic or basement. But when we realize how much damage they can cause, our main concern is to get rid of them.
Still, they are God’s creatures, and He has provided them with the ability to survive in spite of many enemies. We know that when the world and its inhabitants were formed by the Creator, all were at peace with one another. But the sin of Adam and Eve spoiled that perfection and brought hostility and bloodshed among various creatures. Ever since, mice have been the prey of cats, dogs, snakes, owls, hawks, coyotes and many others. They have survived through the centuries only because God has given them much skill and enabled them to bear many offspring.
Not all mice are destructive. Some wild ones are important to the maintenance of wild areas. Although seldom seen because they are nocturnal, there is scarcely a square foot of the deserts and sagebrush areas of North America that they do not visit every night.
Although mice may not be visible to us because they are mostly creatures of the night, they are never hidden from the One who created them. He keeps them under His watchful eye at all times. He says, “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?” (Jeremiah 23:2424Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:24)). Isn’t it nice to know He is watching over these little mice as well as over each one of us?
(to be continued)
ML-12/30/2001