To a Mouse

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”  ~Matthew 1:23

Rabbie Burns is one of Scotland’s most famous sons. The famed 18th Century poet wrote “Auld Lang Syne,” “A Red, Red Rose,” “Tam o’ Shanter,” and several other well-known poems. My favorite, however, is “To a Mouse.” One day, as Burns was working on a farm in November 1785, he accidentally ruined a mouse’s nest. As an apology, Burns wrote the mouse a poem. It begins:

Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a pannic's in thy breastie!
Thou need nae start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

You can find the rest of the poem for yourself. However, the last two stanzas are of note, and perhaps give an insight into the mind of Burns – Burns, who had rejected the Christian faith in which he was raised. Here is the English version:

But Mouse, you are not alone,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes of mice and men
Go oft awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!

Still you are blessed, compared with me!
The present only touches you:
But oh! I backward cast my eye,
On prospects dreary!
And forward, though I cannot see,
I guess and fear!

Burns, a godless womanizer, recognized his past and future were marked by grief, dreariness, and fear – an insight, perhaps, into the life of one who rejects the Gospel for the hollow promises of a hevel world. How different from the Christian: we who have hope and joy and peace and security and confidence in Jesus Christ, who came at Christmas to redeem and rescue and sustain and protect and prize us every day of our lives. We can say with the hymnist, reflecting on the birth of Christ in Bethlehem:

Yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting light;
the hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.   

Christian, we need not lament the past or future. We have the Lord Jesus! He is ours and we are His. We march into this Christmas season and beyond not with “guess and fear,” but knowing that Immanuel loves us, came into this world to save us, and is still for us, with us, and in us.   

Rev. Rob Dykes, Pastor of Preaching & Congregational Care