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TITLE: Clumsy Rat | Previous Challenge Entry
By Dot Hannah
09/03/14
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Clumsy Rat

Instantly, my cup of sorrows was drastically overflowing. I felt panic at being unable to master my disturbing emotions. A painful tension immediately arose between me and my husband. I was the unhappiest person on the planet, marinating in my misfortune. No, I was not dreaming, it was a reality.

My beautiful collection of cups and saucers, from all over the world, was gone. I had collected laboriously for years, attending numerous estate sales and antique auctions. It had been a labor of love, and they were exceedingly significant to me. My carefree husband was plodding past the glass cabinet which contained these treasures, vacuum cleaner in hand, when he bumped the cabinet. I vividly recall the sound of crashing glass. Years of collecting had passed into nothingness. I raised my big, brown eyes, set in pure black anger, with incredulous unbelief.

“Look what you have done!” I thundered. My repentant husband looked at the heap of glass in boundless amazement, and apologized with genuine sincerity, as if that would at all suffice. Nonsense, I wanted a pound of flesh from this clumsy rat. My intense agitation grew feverously into fury, like storm clouds gathering on the horizon about to burst. He abruptly vanished.

Straightaway, the Lord spoke to my spirit and said, “Anything you possess can be here one moment and gone the next. Lay your treasures up in heaven.” “What, Lord?” I asked. He said, “There are greater perils than a heap of broken cups and saucers.” I realized my petty and wild succession of anger was ridiculous, and willingly collected myself, carefully acknowledging this truth. I wanted to keep a non yielded front and persist in my lamentations, but I felt the full force of the Lord’s Words, and my critical face relaxed. Too many of us get entangled in things, when all that matters is zealously appreciating a faithful God and the ones He has generously given us to love.

When all is said and done, it will not be things which will be important to me. My joy is not in cups and saucers or any other worldly possession. It is my relationship with God, the Jewel which enriches lives, and others. He is a Diamond in a world of cubic zirconias, and He will never break or lose His value. He and others are the treasures I want to cherish and proudly display.

When the clumsy rat reappeared, smiling his sweetest smile, he had in my eyes again become a handsome prince. I humbly apologized, he graciously forgave, and we hurried along for there was broken glass to be cleaned up. It takes a special sort of man to promptly and kindly forgive overkill.

Later in the afternoon, dropping in exhaustion, I settled into the porch swing. I heard the wind in the tree tops, like an orchestra playing in tune, and felt a bone dense sense of peace. Life is full of sweet consolation, much beauty, love and laughter. No need of cups and saucers.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through to steal.” KJV (Matthew 6:19)

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