From the World of Mice to the World of Humans

One day, I visited a friend who told me about his new pet: a laboratory mouse. Honestly, I’m not very fond of mice, but meeting this one seemed interesting. My friend had set up a huge cage for the mouse. Inside the cage were tube tunnels, play areas, and a spinning wheel. The mouse was running through these tunnels, spinning in the wheel, and looked quite adorable. In fact, its antics even started to entertain me.

I asked my friend if they ever let the mouse out of its cage. They told me that when they took it out, the mouse would get scared. Then they handed me a few fish-shaped crackers and asked me to feed them to the mouse. The sound of the bag immediately drew the mouse to me. I offered it a cracker, and it quickly grabbed it with its tiny hands and ate it. It then wanted a second cracker, which it quickly devoured too. After consuming five big crackers, I noticed something surprising: the mouse hadn't eaten them but had stored them in its mouth! Its cheeks were bulging, and it wanted more. Realizing we wouldn’t give it any more, it dashed into the colorful glass tunnel.

I was amazed to see what the mouse did next. It carefully pulled the crackers out of its mouth and hid them inside the tunnel. It stored each one. The mouse wasn’t actually hungry; it simply had a storage spot there where it was keeping its food. When I looked, I saw nuts, crackers, chips, and all sorts of different foods. The mouse came back for more crackers, but I didn’t give it any.

I watched the mouse a bit longer. It had made a sleeping area from the shavings under the play platform and another food storage there. It seemed the mouse was instinctively programmed to hoard. This behavior made me think. Wow, I thought, aren’t humans just like this?

People also accumulate things—not just food but money to buy food, houses, land, cars, and possessions. Like the mouse, they try to protect what they have and share only a portion with their children. They run, jump, and enjoy life just like the mouse. But no matter how much they gather, they always want more.

Imagine the mouse cage as the world. We are the mouse inside. Every day, the Creator provides for us. Even if we think we've earned it, it’s really His gift. And we hoard it, fearing we might not get more. How much do we truly trust in our Creator? We constantly crave more!

If the area outside the mouse cage were spirituality, think about how much we fear the spiritual. One day, we will leave that cage and go to our true home, but have we forgotten the values that make us human? Where is the sharing, love, selfless kindness, respect, standing against injustice, and worship? Where is the turning to our Creator and loving Him, greeting others, and showing tolerance?

The mouse does what it’s supposed to do. But we, as individuals, have become so self-centered that we do things even a mouse wouldn’t: deceiving others, stealing, lying, committing injustice... But the mouse doesn’t do these things! Are we striving to be humans or mice, or even something less? The choice is yours!

When we possess the emotions that make us human and follow the Creator's commands, that's when we truly become humans. Weren’t we sent here to be tested and to do good deeds?