When Grandma was a young lady she taught in a one-room schoolhouse. Of course she wasn’t called Grandma back then; she was called Miss Smith. The schoolhouse was out in the Canadian countryside. None of us have ever figured out how Grandma, or rather Miss Smith, ever taught all eight grades in one room. How could she teach the alphabet to the first graders and algebra to the eighth graders in the same room on the same day? She also stood beside an old wood stove and stirred hot lunches while she taught!
At another school where Miss Smith taught, the children were very poor and brought their lunches to school in honey pails. There were 42 students and only 36 seats. How did Miss Smith teach that class?
But teaching everyone together in one room and not having enough desks weren’t Miss Smith’s only problems. Another problem was mice. There were a lot of them at the school where the children brought their lunches in honey pails. Often the children left their pails on a shelf at the back of the room. The mice could smell the food in the pails. As Miss Smith taught lessons, she could hear the pails dancing as the mice scurried around them. A stamp of her foot brought silence, but not for long.
One day during class when Miss Smith opened her desk drawer, a mouse jumped right out! The girls jumped on their desks (and yes, Miss Smith squealed), and the boys gave chase as the mouse headed for the cold-air register in the floor. The mouse won. That did it! Something had to be done about the mice in the schoolroom.
“Does anyone have a cat that is good at catching mice?” Miss Smith asked her class. Yes, one girl did. Since she lived close by, as soon as school was over she came back with a sleepy-looking creature in her arms. The cat curled up and dozed in a corner of the room until . . . suddenly she streaked across the room and —POUNCE! The cold-air register was no protection for the mouse this time. She ate it, cleaned her whiskers and waited. Before long there was another streak across the room and . . . POUNCE! The cat got that one too. She ate it and cleaned her whiskers. Before Miss Smith went home that day, the cat had killed and eaten six mice!
Miss Smith left the cat in the schoolhouse for the night. The next morning she came in and found a lot of dead mice! She didn’t know how many more the cat might have eaten, but there were 16 left on the floor!
But wait a minute. You thought this story was about how a cat and a mouse lived happily together. It is. But first I had to tell you how much cats like to hunt mice even when they are not hungry. This will help you understand just how remarkable it was when a cat and a mouse lived together.
This part of the story happened a long, long time before Miss Smith had 22 mice in her schoolroom. This part of the story happened not too long after God made people and animals. The Bible says that the earth was wicked before God, and it was filled with violence (Genesis 6:1212And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:12)). It says that God saw that everything people thought about was only evil all the time, much like it is today. The world was so evil that God decided that He would have to destroy the people on the earth.
One man, Noah, was doing what was pleasing to God, and He wanted to save Noah and his family. He also wanted to save the animals. So God told Noah exactly how to build a large boat. God was going to send a flood to destroy the people on the earth, and Noah and the animals would be safe in the boat.
Noah obeyed God, and before it began to rain, two cats and two mice walked into the boat. Why is it that the cats didn’t eat those mice? If a cat would kill over 22 mice in one day, why were those mice safe? The answer is easy. God wanted to save them, that’s why. And the lions and the lambs lived together in that boat too, and all kinds of other animals that normally wouldn’t live together were there. Animals are more obedient than boys and girls when they hear the voice of their Creator! God told them to go in together and they did. God has told you that you must be saved . . . have you obeyed? “God . . . now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man [Jesus] whom He hath ordained” (Acts 17:30-3130And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: 31Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:30‑31)). “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)).
Were the mice afraid of the cats even though God did not allow them to be eaten? No, I don’t think so. When God works, He can take care of all the problems that we might think up, and I’m sure those mice were happy in that boat with the cats. Boys and girls sometimes think up “problems” about being saved too. Some are afraid that being a Christian isn’t a happy life or that they wouldn’t be able to keep themselves saved. But the Lord Jesus said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:1111These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11)). And you don’t have to keep yourself saved, because the Lord Jesus does that. Jesus also said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:27-2827My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27‑28)).
The next time you see a cat or a mouse, I hope you’ll remember about the time a cat and a mouse lived happily together. God planned that special time so that there would be more animals in the world after the flood. And God has a wonderful salvation planned for you too. Will you accept it?
ML-10/24/1999