What to Do with Snakes

I’m staying at my mom’s place for the next few months helping her out with a few projects.  The other morning I was sitting at a desk set up in a spare bedroom.  When out of the corner of my eye and directly behind and above me no less I see and hear a mouse trap rustling.  Looking up I can see the cardboard sticky trap as it seems to move precariously on the shelf above.  I could just imagine that mouse who must have been only partly caught tumbling onto myself or the desk.  I really am not a fan of mice and so in moment I was up the stairs to recruit help.  My mom has never really feared mice or if she did she has had a lifetime of hiding it.   So she grabs some gloves and follows me to the basement.  

As we stand staring at the shelf trying to figure out if the mouse was still there, I notice this black pipe protruding down from the crawl space above.  In a nano seconds my mind comes to the conclusion I have never seen this pipe before, and that wiggling box from earlier had moved with the a serpent like rythem.  Leaning around my mom who was near the shelf I am staring at the pipe and breathing out a curse word I say with horror. “$#!@, I think it’s a snake!”  and in moment we both saw that indeed it was and somehow retreated up the stairs in double time!!

The story goes on how we bravely came up with a way to grab it, but fear overtook us both and we could not do it. After a few phone calls a neighbors farm hand came to our rescue.  It was in those moments while mom was up calling neighbors for help that I  stood vigil at the door.  I making sure I could see where the vile little serpent  was should he tumble from his hiding place to the shelf or worse yet the floor below.  A snake loose in the house is much worse if you don’t know where he is.  Alone, standing guard. I remembered that a long time ago I wrote about a snake story I had heard on the radio.

What to Do with Snakes.

I was headed towards Sioux Falls, SD listening to an oldies station.  When on the radio some guy started to talk about snakes.  “Did you know the most common phobia in America is the fear of snakes?”  The man’s voice asked.   I had always thought the most common fear was public speaking, but a fear of snakes makes sense.   I was relived to hear it wasn’t a fear of  hearing the sound of balloons popping or a fear of condiments!  I have actually met a few people now, who are afraid of things like hearing a balloon burst, mustard or  mayonnaise….it’s really hard to know how to be a good friend when all I really want to do is ask them why they fear this substance while slowly spreading it onto a sandwich…I’m kinda mean spirited I guess.    

The radio persona went on to give an account of a guy who found a snake in his basement, panicking the fella doused the snake with kerosene, lit the creature on fire and burned his entire house down.  All out of a fear of snakes.  

Now I have to admit I understand about being afraid of snakes.  I hate them!  In fact the only person I have ever punched was over a snake.  I was 4 years old at the time.  I had been riding in the back of the camper with my Grammy.   Suddenly Granddad stopped the truck and came to the back, Gram and I listened, wondering what the trouble was, as he opened the tail gate and then the door to our cozy little home away from home.  

“Hey I want to show you something, Granddad beckoned to me.”  

 Trustingly  I jumped into my hero’s open arms.  

“What is it?”

  I asked eagerly as he carried me, back down the highway.  Ahead of us all I could see was a piece of rope lying in the middle of the road.   Astoundingly that little rope began to move, all by itself.  Granddad quickly scooped up the tiny little snake.  His intent was to show me that snakes were nothing to be afraid of, however I panicked.  Here I was held securely in his left arm and in his right hand was that awful, little forked tongued serpent.  Screaming and crying I began to kick, punch, do everything I could to get away from that vicious little monster.  It was only seconds before Granddad had to drop the snake in order to keep from dropping me.    Years later I learned I clocked him pretty hard in the nose.  

A couple years later my mom tried again.  This time she wanted to teach my dog to hate snakes.  We had rattlers on our property, so her hope was if the dog and I ever found one the dog would protect me and kill it.  So here we were on a camping trip in the Big Horn Mountains, mom uses a stick to pick up a little water snake and thrust it at my dog.  Only I screamed, and ran away with my pup closely at my heels.  I ran to the safety of some nearby campers and told them how my mean mom was chasing us with a scary, scaly snake

I can even understand the guy who out of fear accidently burnt down his entire house…sometimes you just can’t think straight.  Like this one time my brothers and I were coming home from school.  The bus dropped us off at the top of the driveway.  It was about a football field’s length to the house.  Just inches in front of me I noticed a big bull snake slithering into his hole.  I had no choice but to step over him.  I took about three more steps when suddenly it hit me, that was a snake!  “Snake!!!”  I screamed, dropping my books I ran the rest of the way down the hill, leaving my little brothers to fend for themselves….the funny thing is I had already calmly stepped over and past it, before panic took over.  

After becoming a Christian and reading the account of Adam and Eve I rationalized this fear.  It is part of the curse, perfectly normal.  After all God told Eve there would be animosity between her seed and the serpent’s seed.  I’m a daughter of Eve and therefore destined to hate snakes.  Course then some Smart-Alec points out the part in the NT where Jesus tells us he has given us authority to trample on snakes and scorpions.  

The announcer again asked, “In an average year how many people actually die from the bite of a venomous snake?”  My guess was 20-30, maybe 100 world-wide.  The answer was two, and yet scores of people get injured or even die out of their fearful response to seeing a snake.  I mean people have heart attacks, get in wrecks, run and fall, all at the sight of a snake.  The radio announcer went on too encourage the listening audience to learn to think rationally when it comes to snakes.  To not let vivid imaginations blow things out of perspective, to keep the truth in mind.  He then went on to explain that snakes in our lives could be bills, challenges at work, difficulties in relationships, health issues, etc.  The entire account took only a few minutes then the man’s wisdom was replaced with another rocking tune from the early 60’s.  Instead I turned down the volume to ponder the words.  

Immediately I thought of the Apostle Paul.  Paul was a man who knew his share of troubles.  He had spent time in prison for preaching the gospel.  He had been beaten and whipped for his faith, 8 different times, he had even been stoned.  Three times he had been shipwrecked.  In fact it was during one of those shipwrecks that Paul encountered a snake.  

You see after the shipwreck they had been marooned on this island inhabited by a barbaric tribe.  Paul, immediately set to work, building a fire to warm up the other survivors.  Yet while collecting a bundle of wood this viper, crawl out and bites him, injecting its venom into Paul.  

The superstitious islanders immediately assume that Paul must be some sort of vicious criminal like a murderer and that’s whey the gods were killing him off with a snake bite.  Paul shook the snake into the fire and went about his work.  I have often thought about that…how would I have responded?  Firstly I would have lacked Paul’s calmness and freaked out at the sight of the viper.   Let alone having its teeth latched into my arm.  Other people would have probably gotten hurt as I ran around screaming and in all likelihood would end up flinging the dang thing into someones lap.  

More then that though I think I would have been angry with God, for allowing so many bad things to happen.  I mean here is Paul, serving God, preaching the gospel, and he is beaten, arrested, tried, and tried again.  He is shipwrecked, survives the shipwreck only to be bitten by a poisonous snake.  If it had been me I would have been asking “God don't you love me?  Why have you forsaken me?”

Yet Paul didn’t question God’s love, or His protection, in fact he didn’t blame God at all.  Instead when that critter latched onto his hand, Paul shook his hand till he shook the snake off and it was cast into the fire.   The Islander’s watched and waited fully expecting Paul to get sick, keel over and die.  Yet Paul did not die, instead he continued serving the other shipwrecked survivors.  You see this apostle had an understanding of the purpose God had for his life.  He was confident that God had bigger plans for him yet and therefore a little ole snake bites was not going to stop him.  He also knew that God had given His followers the authority to trample on snake and scorpions.  

Jesus had promised his followers that as they went out and preached the gospel, signs would follow verifying their message was from above.  Signs such as- healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead and that they could take up snakes, and they would not be harmed.  So Paul walked in the authority given to Him by the King of all Kings and he shook off that snake.  And guess what happened, the islanders seeing that God’s hand was upon him they began to bring the sick to Paul so that he could pray for them and Paul  was able to share the good news with them!  Revival broke out all because Paul walked in the peace and joy of the Lord.

That’s what we need to do, when we are assaulted by trials, burdened with problems, weighed down with opposition.  We need to shake it off and set our eyes on Jesus and finish the course He has set for us.