amos the churchmouse: a view from under the pew Editor’s note: Amos is a churchmouse, unable to use the keyboard shift keys and unschooled in the art of punctuation. amos on consolation i noticed sammy salamander sitting on a stump all by himself one day looking so forlorn and being the psychological sort of mouse that i am i decided to observe animal nature at its best consoling its fellow animalkind sally spider was the first to wander past sammy who was noticeably groaning by now hey sammy - what s the matter - what happened question mark here boss it s probably one of the greatest tragedies of my life so far sammy said i m still just sorta stunned you know wow - you look like you lost your best friend sammy i did sammy nodded petey the pollywog died pollywog - yuck - sally said and hurried away on all eight of her legs a dismayed sammy looked down at the ground - which wasn t that far away - and moaned we were as close as salamanders and frogs could be about then louie the songdog happily padded by - hallelujah brother praise the lord - hey what s this down-in-the-mouth trick well you see sammy started to explain my best friend petey the pollywog died but louie didn t hear boss he was on a ministerial roll well don t you worry about that he said if he s washed in the fountain he ll be swimming down the streets of gold in frog heaven but you boy don t you know a christian ought to be happy - happy happy happy - now you need to get the ol joy back in again - let s see the ol smileroo sammy tried to smile but it just wasn t working boss then sammy noticed freddie flea who had quietly hopped over to sammy s stump freddie you look sad - what happened to you somebody close to me died last night freddie said it s just so hard for me to understand why does god allow things like that to happen i don t know freddie sammy said something like that just happened to me i sorta know how you feel it hurts pretty bad doesn t it yeah it sure does freddie said and they both sat there in silence pondering and feeling one another s pain boss i guess we re feeling a little like how god may have felt when jesus died on the cross sammy said thoughtfully yeah i guess you re right i hadn t thought about that - thanks sammy yeah i feel a little better myself thanks freddie sometimes boss we don t really know how to minister to one another - all it takes is a little understanding and compassion - just a willingness to weep with those who weep amos