Article April 14, 2014

Into the mouths of babes

Kaye Cover

A day in the life of a teacher is never dull. Case in point: One winter day three of my students, sisters, came to me with concerned faces and a shoebox stuffed with a towel. They said they needed my help. In a spare bedroom at home their mom had discovered a nest of abandoned newborn mice. In the mountain area in which I was teaching, it is common for critter families to try to get out of the cold weather. The girls had been feeding the baby mice (also called mouselets, pups, pinkies, or kittens) their baby sister’s formula from a dropper, but their mom wanted the pinkies gone! So my students brought them to me, certain I would know just what to do and be willing to serve as a surrogate mom for the babies.

To be honest, I was hesitant to take this task on—I was very busy with work and my own family, and didn’t want to feed baby mice every few hours. I didn’t even like the looks of the tiny, hairless creatures. But I remembered something Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (p. 514). I accepted that the baby mice must have a purpose, and that I did, too. I felt that my purpose right then was to be a role model my students could count on and trust, and since I continually stressed the importance of being kind to all creatures, I needed to teach by example.

I became aware that the pups, too, expressed Godly qualities.