Mice & Stoves & Hearts

The Stove

A few weeks ago our friend was over and I heard this rustling sound coming from the kitchen. I thought maybe something just shifted and I ignored it. A few minutes later I heard the sound again...hoping it was only my imagination, I once again ignored it. The third time, there was no denying it. A creature was in our midst. The three of us all walked slowly and softly into the kitchen, where we could hear something stirring---possibly in the stove. Ugh. As any normal person would do, I ran up to the stove screaming, hoping to give the small mammal a heart attack and thus not have to go buy traps. It didn't work. We could not find the little guy then and didn't see any signs of him for the next week or so. It had been super cold and then warmed a little, so we thought maybe he'd gone back outside.

Unfortunately, a few days later, we noticed...um...evidence that Mickey was indeed still visiting. And then one morning while Casey was in the downstairs bathroom, he saw Mickey run under the door and then up into a crack under the sink cabinet. Talk about heart attacks!!! We bought some traps and the rest is history. Mickey won't be visiting anymore.

So...I thought I'd cleaned up pretty much every area Mickey had visited while staying with us, but then I went to put away a couple cookie sheets in the drawer under the stove, and I thought I saw some...evidence...again, and decided to thoroughly clean the drawer. While I had the drawer pulled out to clean it, I noticed that I could see under the stove. The little bit I could see looked about like how you would imagine the underneath of a stove looks...disgusting. So I thought maybe I should pull the drawer all the way out. I did.

3 hours later I woke up on the floor after having fainted at the sight and smell. Okay, maybe not quite. But I seriously did want to throw up. If you've never cleaned underneath a stove that approximately 5 million people have used before you, I don't even know if I can recommend you do it! It's that disgusting. Amongst whatever death was under there, I also found 5 bottle caps, a pear magnet, a fork, and a Bojangle's name tag. Score. At least we know one good person lived here before us. The urge to just put the drawer back and pretend like I didn't know what was under there was strong. I DID NOT want to touch anything down there. But I also knew I wouldn't be able to un-know what was lurking right underneath my nose that whole time. I had a new understanding of the phrase "Ignorance is bliss." But I was no longer ignorant.

So I pulled out my gloves. I got my Lysol wipes. And spray. And I went to work. It was hard. That stuff was caked on for who knows how many years. Pretty sure I'm the first person to venture down into that mess. While I was down there, it just hit me in the face. God was giving me a life illustration.

All week long, I had been feeling like God just kept revealing more of my sin to me. I was not enjoying it. The more layers were peeled back, the worse things seemed. I kept having to resist the urge to just run away. But where could I run to? I realized, while I was down there in that mess, that God has known my mess all along, just like He's known the mess under my stove. Because He is a loving and wise Father, He knows just when to let me know that He knows. He understands that if I could see all the messes in my life at one time, I would just quit. He also knows that once I see the mess, I can't just ignore it anymore. And...He has not left me alone to clean the mess up myself. He reveals it to me so that I will know He is the One who will make me whole again. "Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord!" Even though I would rather not have had a disgusting mess to clean up, I was so thankful for such a timely and gracious illustration from my Dad.