Let My Laughter Resound!
ALL THIS ‘TROUBLE’ JUST TO LOCATE SOME MOUSETRAPS!
There are some ‘basic correlations’ that we humans take ‘for granted’. If there is a ‘head’ then there (logically) is a ‘hat’. If there are hands, then there are ‘gloves’. If there is a ‘plate’, then there is food. If there is a ‘running uniform’, then there is a track running trail. If there is a ‘violin’, then there must be a violinist. If there is a Toyota car, then there must be a driver.
These most basic correlations are obvious to any thinking person! Many objects or persons are involved in the dynamics of ‘correlations’. One ‘thing’ calls for the involvement of another thing, and the two things together are in a complementary relationship.
What is the basic complement to a ‘pesky scampering mouse’? Of course, a mouse trap! In our house (a few years ago), we had one side of the equation – we had the presence of ‘pesky mice’ – but we did not have the presence of the other side of the equation. We did not have, on hand, any mouse trap!
One night, with the recognition that we did not have one side of the equation (namely, mouse traps), my dear wife sent me on a ‘mission’. I was to go to some store to find and to purchase some mouse traps! An important mission, for, you see, my (courageous) wife is ‘deathly afraid’ of those elusive mice. Years before this time (when she and I were quite young), my wife and a lady friend of hers, were terrified with the presence of a little mouse which was running around in our kitchen.
My wife called a neighbor man, and he and his wife came to our house to do ‘battle with the little mouse’! My wife and the wife of this neighbor man (a long-time friend) – these women were ‘frightened in an unexplainably manner’ (beyond reason) – and the wife of the neighbor ended up on top of my dining room table! The neighbor man chased the mouse with a broom, and the human finally ‘conquered’ God’s miniature creature!
What is there about mice that send panic to the heart of so many people? To look at the motions of fear, you would think that these panic-stricken persons were being attacked by angry lions, rather than by harmless mice!
There is a hardware store, located about one mile from my home – a good place to fulfill my ‘personal and important mission’ – to purchase some mouse traps!
It was about 7:00p.m., later than a store would normally be open, but I noticed that there were some bright lights, emitting a warm glow within this inviting store. I was rather delighted that the store was still open. Surely, it would be an easy task for me to quickly purchase a few ‘mouse killers’ (mouse traps).
I would go into the store – a store that I enjoyed often to go into – and I would quickly exit, and I would be on my way home to present these ‘mouse contraptions’ to my wife! I could hear my wife say to me, as I entered the ‘front door’ of my house, that she was so grateful to me for going out into the night air, to show my concern for her (to save her from those pesky little creatures)!
As I opened the front door of this familiar hardware store, I was glad that it had not yet closed, that business hours were later than I realized! I was not aware of the opening and the closing time for this fine store, but, since I entered the front door of the hardware store at about 7 p.m., I assumed that the store closing time must be later in the evening, maybe 8 p.m. or even 9 p.m.!
When I entered the front door, and I walked over to the front counter (close to the front door), something struck me as rather ‘odd’ (even strange). Some of the bright lights in the store were turned on, but other lights in the store were not turned on. The front lights (where I was standing) were turned on. But, strangely, the entire center of the store was dark (with no lights turned on). Then, I noticed that the lights in the back of the store (far from where I was standing) were turned on. In other words, the front and the back of the store was brightly lite, but the entire center of the store was very dark, with no lights shining!
I thought to myself, since there was no one to wait on me at the ‘checkout counter’, in the front of the store, that possibly there were one or two store employees working in the back of the store. I thought it was strange that no one (from the back of the store) would come to the front of the store to ‘wait on me’, to help me find some mouse traps!
These ‘various perplexing questions’ (conjectures of my mind) lasted for only a few seconds (maybe one minute). Then ‘shock of all shocks’, an ’emotional-shattering’, ‘ear-ringing’ alarm sounded off in the store! I immediately realized that I was alone in this store! This store was closed for business! I had no employees in the store to ‘wait on me’. I was all by my lonesome in this mainly darkened store. The shrill sound of the alarm, combined with the eerie feelings that crept over me, at that time, made me feel that I was in the middle of an ‘angry nightmare’!
The sound of the alarm made me feel like I was a robber, a thief who needed to run and to hide – but where could I run to, and how could I hide? I couldn’t get out of the store! I was, indeed, trapped in a store! Would the police consider me to be an abandoned robber? And this entire hair-raising event because I was trying to be ‘good’ to my wife, simply trying to find her some mouse traps! The door I came into the store, that same door (which I ‘tried’ to open) would not allow me to exit the store! I was trapped!
How did I ever get myself into such a predicament? I went time after time to the front door (the door I entered), and the door would not swing outward to release me from my panic and my ‘bondage’! I felt so lonely, so defenseless, so detected, so guilty, so confused, so exposed! I was ‘at the mercy’ of the police! Would they accept my alibi?
I thought that I probably was pinpointed for an arrest! Surely the police would understand that I found the front door of the hardware store open, and that I assumed that the store was open for business!
After all, some of the lights (particularly the front end store lights) were shining brightly, and those lights naturally ‘invited’ me into the store.
After I got into the store, I was ‘trapped’, for the door through which I entered the store, swings in only one direction. It is an entrance door, but not an exit door! I thought that if they arrested me for being in this privately-owned store, I would present to them these logical arguments! Surely, with these facts in mind, any fair-minded police officer would ‘buy my story’!
It was a frightening thought to me to quickly conclude that I came into this store, thinking that the store was open for business!
As just noted, during my moments in which I felt considerable ‘panic’, I repeatedly went to the same door through which I had entered a few minutes before this time. When I pushed on the door, hoping to quickly exit the store, I found that the door did not permit me to exit. It was a door to be used for entrance into the store – entrance only!
I was trapped inside this store! The shrill-sounding alarm continued to sound off! That shrill sound, blasting my ear drums, sent ‘chills down my spine’. I tried to use that same door again and again, but to no avail! Yes, there was no way for me to exit this hardware store – the very store to which I had often given my business!
Because the store was located, amidst several other stores, in a small ‘shopping center’, I now hoped that I could ‘get the attention’ of some persons who were outside of the store, just walking by. I waved my hands, hoping that at least one of the few walking persons would notice my desperate situation. But, to my dismay and to my frustration, not a single soul noticed my waving hands!
Different thoughts were racing through my mind, but I knew that I was penned (trapped) in this hardware store! I knew that I needed to get word to my wife, but how could that be done? Then, I happened to look at the ‘check out’ counter, and (fortunately/providentially) I noticed the presence of a telephone.
I wondered if I could get through to my wife, to let her know about this strange set of circumstances. No, I couldn’t tell her that my mission (to find mouse traps) was accomplished, but I could ask her to fulfill another mission – the mission of helping to get me out of my present terrible ‘mess’!
I called her, and she, of course, could hardly believe my ‘story’. No, it is not a ‘prank’ – this is the ‘real thing’. Venita quickly phoned the ‘police department’, and she told them about the details of my ‘predicament’. The policeman who talked to Venita was understanding and he was glad that she quickly called the police department. At that very time (as Venita was talking to the police officer), there were several police officers who were ‘on their way’ to the store!
If Venita would have waited much longer to call, there would have been a small group of police officers who would have shown up at the store – to talk to me! Venita ‘saved the day’ (night), and she also saved me from further ‘challenges’! I was nervous enough! Can you imagine how fast my heart would have ‘beat’, if a group of police officers would have surrounded me – in the premises of that store!
Would they have believed me, if I would have told them that I (innocently) had been on a ‘mission’ to purchase mouse traps? I only wanted to be a ‘good husband’ and to fulfill my assignment (mission) – to find some armament to battle a ‘pesky creature’ that brought ‘fright’ to my lovely wife, every time she saw one of those creatures run across her kitchen floor!
I did not know about the oncoming ‘small force’ of police officers who were ‘on their way’ to evaluate the situation at the hardware store. I don’t know, of course, but I suppose that my arrest could have been one of the options, when the police arrived at the store!
It was not too long until one police officer kindly came to the front door of the hardware store. He quickly opened the door to release me! How grateful I was to see him. He brought words of comfort and encouragement and understanding to me. A very kind man, as well as a responsible police officer, I was grateful for his ‘human touch’ and his kind words!
It was sweeter than my words can describe to be released from my ‘temporary prison’! It seemed like a long time, but, in reality, it might have been only a half hour that I was in the hardware store. Time, in those circumstances goes so slowly! After I left the confines of that store, to breath the ‘fresh night air’ was ‘heavenly’! I resumed my ‘mission’, I forthrightly went to another store in the area (a store that stays open all night), and I purchased those coveted ‘mouse traps’!
My wife’s sister (who was Venita’s companion for the entire evening), was determined, as soon as I made the phone call to my wife in the middle of the crisis, to go to the store, and to attempt to give me some ‘comfort’ while she stood outside of the store window (where she could view my inside predicament). It was while she was in the process of showing actions of compassion towards me, that Venita had made the call to the police department.
By the time that my sister-in-law got to the hardware store, I had already been ‘released’ by the police officer. The police officer was still at the front door of the store (probably to block any other person from entering the store), when my sister-in-law arrived at the store. My sister-in-law could not find me (for I had gone to another store to fulfill my ‘important mission’)! The police officer quickly assured my kind sister-in-law that I had been successfully rescued!
I returned to my home (with a sack full of mouse traps), and my sister-in-law came back to our home. Of course, my wife (who was attending to some elderly persons) never left our home. (As usual, however, my wife – a great problem-solver – helped solve the problem of that night, by calling the police department)! The three of us (adults) recounted the episode (inch by inch), and we had lots of laughs that night. We greatly enjoyed drinking hot chocolate together!
We have occasionally laughed since that historic night! When I often enter the front door to enjoy that hardware store, I chuckle inside myself. Was I the only naive soul that night who thought the store was open?
I never ‘dreamed’ that carrying out the mission of purchasing some mouse traps could involve so many complications (i,e. so many ‘twists’ and ‘turns’) in one night – a night that was supposed to be uneventful!
In the ‘battle with the mice’, the mice almost got the ‘upper hand!’ Do you suppose those ‘pesky, miniature, elusive, beasts’ are gathered together in their dark corner, and do you think that they are making music with their special ‘squeals’ – glad that some human ‘had fits’ trying to find those ‘mouse killers’? The battle between humans and the mice is a perpetual and a continuous battle! How ‘nerve-wracking’ it was to fulfill that important ‘mission’ – to find some ‘mouse killers’!
Have you ever wondered why God – the Creator God – decided to make these little ‘pesky’ creatures? Well, I will never know, but I also know that God makes no mistakes. There is a ‘reason’ for all things, in God’s own ‘season’! Maybe these little creatures teach a panic-stricken woman (who wants to climb on top of a dining room table when she sees a mouse heading for her) – I say, maybe these mice teach a woman who is panic-stricken, to ‘calm down and to trust the Creator’! After all, maybe there are some persons who want to laugh while they watch the ‘little creatures’ running and scampering – to and fro – in their garage! “Everyone to his own taste!” Ecclesiastes (Bible): “There is a time and a place for everything!“
ls there a ‘time’ and a ‘place’ for God’s little furry creatures (mice)? Probably so, but it seems, however, for most of us (sensible) human beings, there is no place for mice, either in our garage, or in our kitchen, or in our living room, or in our bathroom, or in our office, or in our attic, or in our basement, or on our table, or underneath our couch!
I am willing for the little fuzzy, elusive creatures to live – but I think that they should live where I think God intended for them to live – in the fields of the countryside! Not in our houses!
If there were no little, quick-moving creatures that we call mice, I would never have to go on a mission to purchase ‘mouse traps’ – and I would never mistakenly go into a hardware store, when it is closed! I would never have to have a near ‘nervous breakdown’ when a shrilling alarm blasts my ear drums inside a store that I have no ‘business’ being in! O, the trials of life – all for the purpose of ridding my home of that furry little, fast running creature!
“Biblical Foundation For The Sanctity Of Human Life!”
Table of contents: Let my laughter resound!
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