Protected by danger
Yesterday I was standing on the platform waiting for the train with the frost on the ground and ‘breath smoke’ when I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye going across the tracks. I looked and saw a little tail sticking out under one rail and wiggling. A mouse. It eventually turned around poked it’s head out for a second before bolting over a tie and under the rail again to disappear. The little guy was an amusing start to my day.
I then saw the lights of a freight train in the distance. I find standing on the platform when a frieght train goes by exhilarating. They don’t slow down and they seem 10 times larger and more powerful than the commuter train as they hurtle past the platform blowing their horn and with the noise from the engines. To be that close to that much mass and power is amazing and it’s hard not to be nervous.
I saw the train coming and remembered the mouse – what was it going to do? I kept my eyes peeled at the general area to see if I could catch a glimpse of it retreating, but never saw anything as the towering machine hurtled past clattering, crashing, and shrieking as it went.
The rails seem to flex and move as the wheels pass over them and the thought of hundreds of tons rolling directly over the mouse, inches away from it’s tiny body intrigued me. Intrigued because I suspected the mouse was still there and that it was perfectly fine.
After the train and a minute passed a little nose poked out and the animal resumed amusing me for five minutes until more people started filling the platform as the West Coast Expresses arrival drew near. Despite the forces and physics above the mouse, ironically it was probably in the safest place it could be.
Not surprisingly It led to some contemplative thoughts on God and my relationship to Him.