This Week's Bulletin

The Mouse, The House, and The Truth
Lance Cordle

I had it all figured out I was going to write an article and entitle it "The Mouse and the House." In that article I was going to repeat the highlights of a story that had been circulating the weekend of January 8, 2006. That story involved a mouse that was thrown into a pile of burning leaves and, according to the story, ran from the fire to the house of the man who threw the mouse on the fire. The Associated Press carried the story and various newspapers across the country printed it. The article was going to be easy to write. I was going to talk about the potential of small things, like a mouse burning down a house. I would illustrate the possibility of something bad as well as good being started by a small thing. I was also going to include the observation that, just as throwing a live mouse onto a leaf fire could cause another fire, actions have consequences. Still further, I intended to say that sometimes, a thing done to intentionally inflict harm can lead to our own harm. And finally, I was going to make the point that sometimes, we think we have things under control, and they get out of control very quickly.

All of these lessons are valid and have been confirmed by the Bible as well as by human experience and all of these would have been wrapped up neatly in the story of the mouse and the house, with but one small problem: the story is not true. Wanting to confirm the story, I used the internet and found that a follow up article had also been released by the Associated Press. Yes, the man threw a mouse on burning leaves; yes the man's house burned but the fire was not started by a burning mouse. The man himself says that the mouse was dead. He thinks the fire spread the normal way rushing through the dry grass near the house and engulfing it. It is thought that the story of the mouse running out of the fire simply was the result of active imaginations and faulty communication.

And so, the thoughts which so easily fit together and flowed so freely, have to remain in the realm of imagination because the mouse did not actually burn the house. Instead of lessons punctuated by an extraordinary circumstance, I am left with an object lesson about the veracity of the things we hear and tell. Stories can be believed, cause quite a stir, cover a great distance, and contain elements of truth but still be false.

The Bible says, "See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire" (James 3:6). Let us exercise caution in the news we hear and tell.

Blessed is the person who makes you homesick for heaven.