Gardening with joy

By 7AM this morning I saw my first snake of the day.

Yes, you read that right.

My first snake OF. THE.  DAY.

For some reason we have been “blessed” with an abundance of snakes in the garden this year.

To be honest, seeing snakes does not give me warm fuzzies. 

In fact, seeing a snake usually prompts me to cease what I am doing, and propels me into the house where I firmly close the door behind me.

Maybe it’s the years we spent living in Africa, where snakes do not have a good reputation and are avoided at all costs - at least by those of us not versed in the science of good reptile vs bad.

Maybe it’s idioms like referring to someone as “a snake in the grass” or saying “if it was a snake it would have bitten you.” 

Or maybe it’s the references to that crafty serpent in the garden of Genesis, or the venomous snakes mentioned by the Psalmist and the Prophets.

But whatever the reason, I react negatively to snake sightings.

My husband says these garden variety snakes eat mice and bugs and that we should appreciate their residence in our garden.  Hmmmm. I’ve had mice in the house in the past and have NOT liked it.  But I haven’t seen evidence of any around lately.

Is it true that sometimes the things that we fear the most actually can help us?

Is it possible that if we could rid our lives of everything that tries us we could be overrun with troubles of a different variety?

In the Bible James tells us to ‘consider it pure JOY when we face trials.’

I’m a L O N G  way from looking at snakes with JOY.

But maybe it’s time to put on my boots and get back out into the garden.