Beware the serpent!

One of the many reasons I love being in Africa, is that I am freed from the many distractions and busyness from everyday life in America.  This allows me the freedom to ponder some of the deeper spiritual truths of daily events that occur that I would otherwise overlook back in the United States.  Yesterday, one of those events occurred and I wanted to share about it.

While doing laundry behind one of the children’s houses, Mama Adele spotted a large snake in the grass just feet from where she was hanging up clothes.  We heard the commotion and ran over to this area and spotted what turned out to be a Boomslang.  Fortunately, it was already dead as one of the dogs probably killed it the night before.  Boomslangs are an extremely dangerous snake (among mambas, cobras, puff adders, etc. that live here) and are highly venomous.  Their venom is a hemotoxin.  This means that it attacks the clotting mechanisms in the blood and the victim will hemorrhage internally.  The interesting thing about a Boomslang bite is that the effects from the venom can be delayed for up to 8 hours so that a victim might be completely unaware that they have received a serious bite until it is too late.  There is a 60% risk of death following a bite from this snake.

So as I was on my daily morning walk today, I was extra vigilant in scanning the ground ahead of me for snakes.  I was also reminded of how the serpent can attack us in our daily lives.  He comes, most often sneakily and under cover of darkness, attacks and “injects” his venom.  We may not be aware of this attack until our lives spiral out of control, relationships are damaged, jobs are lost, etc.  Fortunately, we have a very powerful antivenom available to us in the saving, redemptive power of Jesus Christ who can restore us to complete healing!  

So friends, be ever vigilant for the serpent and cling to the One who is our ultimate protector and healer!