Here lies Chester

Bart stepped away from the door and went into the hallway. He rolled his bag on wheels into the office.
“ I call this my dead zone.” He rummaged around the bag. I was overcome with a wave of dead zone nausea and left.

Bart did his thing and left without so much as a “see ya, chick” and the day’s frantic momentum swept away the hours. The next day started out crazy, and I never even had a minute to think about what was in the closet, in fact, it wasn’t until a weekend later, that I remembered Bart’s visit, and I opened the door to see if Chester was still with us.
“Oh, Lordy, what died?” my office neighbor called out from her office two doors down. “Rank”

I got down on my knees and looked under the rolling table. There he was. Lying in wait. The little brown/gray body lay on its side, looking sweeter than Jesus himself. Jesus rose from the dead, but poor Chester was glued to his fate. Jesus’ stone rolled away, probably down hill flattening a few of Chester’s ancestors, no doubt. Such is the way of the world. Chester the church mouse looked as if he was resting peacefully. His two tiny front paws were nestled under his chin and I could see the shine of his front prong teeth even in the shadowed closet light. He still had a bit of sunflower seed shell sticking out of the side of his rigormortised mouth. Despite all that, I was overcome with a longing to have been able to know him. All he probably wanted to do in life was eat seeds and chew. Is that so much to ask? Poor Chester. Poor poor chester.

I put my phone on DNR and closed my office door but not all the way. I sat in my chair and turned towards the window. The bird feeder still sat in wait of the birds who had not been able to find it.
“Oh, life is sad today”,I thought to myself. I spoke to the window panes that held up the bird feeder.
“All the good I could do for the birds and small creatures of the world, what a shame, what a loss. First Chester, now this. The bird feeder that didn’t feed. Where is God when you really need to know?”

Then it came to me. My moment of spiritual wisdom. I was awakened to the thought that God was indeed present. More than that even, God was looking out for the little creatures I was trying to nurish.. I stood at the window and looked out.

My window faced a brick wall in a small alley. One end was open to the yard, and on the other end was another window. To the unseeing or un noticing eyes, the bird feeder might look as if it was just hanging in mid air. In reality, if a bird were to zoom in, I could see no other outcome other than SPLAT! Into my window or the brick wall. Oh, My. Gosh. Yes. My window was a draw to those flying by, a dangerous draw, this murderous thought had just occurred to me. That must be why my birdfeeder had not been visited yet. God was keeping the birds away. And letting Chester have his fill.

As this revelation hit home, I decided that Chester deserved a proper burial. I marched into the kitchen and found an appropriate sized bag, then I got another and I gently placed my stuck in the glue little unknown friend into the bag, tied it twice, and then double bagged him. That’s what we do for those we really truly love. We double bag them.
I placed him in the trash can/ columbariumette, and placed a paint stick cross in with him, that had this on it:

Here lies Chester the church mouse
Born :recently died Easter Weekend
He was a good mouse.

Sometimes it’s the little revelations that bring our faith to light.


Church Chick