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.
No comments:
Post a Comment