A Christmas Mouse

December, 1944. In Europe, America is in Germany’s front yard. The Russians, in the back. Hitler is in his bunker, looking for a way out. Most believe the war will be over any day now. The soldiers, home in time for Christmas. But wait! Hitler still has one last trick up his sleeve! The Battle of the Bulge begins, and so ends all hope for an early end to the war. Many families, like the Brights in Rockwell, Vermont, receive telegrams stating their loved ones won’t be home at all. The next farm over, a much tinier family has problems of their own. A pair of escaped laboratory mice, just trying to survive the coming winter and a cruel cat named Ebeneezer. Honey Whites, they’re called. Bred for their exceptional intelligence and longevity. Now all they want to do is get home to their old woodpecker hole in the big fence post before Ebby the Awful finds them. Two families, both in peril and in need of some answered prayers. An expectant little mouse named Merry and a brave redbird named Jack will bring them all together, while a hand carved wooden baby in a Nativity intercedes on everyone’s behalf. A Christmas Mouse is of course a Yuletide Tale but it’s more than that. It’s a parable about faith, love, hope, and compassion. Sacrifice and salvation. All the endearing emotions and miracles that make a Christmas, Merry and Bright.