Looking out for others

Today, I am reminded of a story, and would like to share it:

There once was a mouse who looked through the crack in
the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package.
"What food might this contain?" thought the mouse. He was
devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the
warning. "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a
mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and
said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to
you, but it is of no consequence to me, I cannot be
bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a
mousetrap in the House!"

The pig sympathized but said, "I am so very sorry Mr.
Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray.
Be assured that you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow. She said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse,
I'm sorry for you. But it's no skin off my nose."

So the mouse returned to the house, head down and
dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house
like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the
darkness she did not see that it was a venomous snake
whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the
farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital and
she returned home with a fever.

Now everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken
soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for
the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and
neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed
them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well. She died; and so many
people came for her funeral the farmer had the cow
slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

So next time you hear that someone is facing a problem
and think that it doesn't concern you, remember that when
one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

I leave you with a scripture that goes right along with this little story:
Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (Philippians 2:4 NLT)