It happened fifteen years ago. At our detached house, we often had many unexpected “guests” throughout the year. In spring came butterflies, earwigs, and millipedes; in summer, crickets, cicadas, and spiders. But the biggest trouble was mice.
One day, my mom and I went around spraying insecticide and setting poison from the rooftop to the bathroom and storage room to get rid of the mice and bugs. Suddenly, we heard a faint “meow” from somewhere. Since we did not have a cat, I did not think much of it at first. But the crying continued through the night, growing louder and more desperate.
In the middle of the night, my mom woke up to the sound and quickly ran outside. I followed her up to the rooftop. When she shone her flashlight near the water tank, she gasped, “Oh no, what should I do?” Inside the tank, a tiny kitten was struggling, about to drown, while the mother cat cried out desperately beside it.
Mom quickly pulled the kitten out, wiped it with a towel, and gave it a heart massage. Then she brought it inside and carefully dried it with a hair dryer. After a long while, the kitten finally began to breathe again. Hearing its weak cry, the mother cat came running in, licking her kitten affectionately. Before leaving with her baby, the mother cat kept turning back to look at my mom again and again, as if to say thank you.
A few days later, something amazing happened. There were no more spider webs, no more crickets, and no more mice in our house.
At first, I thought, “Maybe the insecticide finally worked.” But that did not make sense—we had used poison before, yet the pests always came back. Then one day, I realized the reason: the cat had repaid the grace. It began bringing in the very mice and bugs that had troubled us, one by one. Thanks to that cat, our house became free of pests. Mom, smiling proudly, said, “You even know how to repay kindness,” and continued feeding them for a long time.
Even the smallest creatures on this earth know how to repay grace when they receive it. Yet I, who have received the greatest grace of all—the grace of salvation from Heavenly Father and Mother—have been slow to repay it. From now on, I will live a life that truly repays Their love and grace.