In May on Memorial Day weekend, Mark, Scott and I traveled to Missouri to spend time with my mother-in-law Grace. It was a "working weekend" with Mark, Scott and Uncle "Chops" putting in a 16' cattle gate. I had made plans to walk down to the creek and lounge in the sun most of the weekend. That was BEFORE Mark told me about the snakes Grace had killed prior to our arrival.
I've been going to the cabin with Mark for the past 26 years, but this year was the first time I felt so skittish about the snakes. Besides the snakes being on my mind, it seemed that every bug known to Missouri was residing in the 83-year-old cabin. Mark thought it was funny, but I wasn't laughing and Scott wasn't laughing (I love that boy!) because, as he put it, "I'm really not that much into nature this time."
Despite my fears that I was going to step on a copperhead, I really did want to see one – from a distance, of course. Sunday after church, we headed to the cemetery to place flowers at the gravesites of Mark's dad and other family members. Then we headed to Potosi to visit the Old Mines Baptist Cemetery, where Mark's great-grandparents are buried. But due to the high grass, even Mark wouldn't venture into the potential snake haven. I wanted to get as close as I could in order to read the inscriptions, so I stepped out of the truck and put my foot down and immediately screamed, only to realize the "snake" that I stepped on was merely a large seed pod that happened to wiggle when I placed my foot on it. After Scott and I positioned our hearts back in their appropriate places, we had a good chuckle over it. But, the damage was done; we both were quite unnerved by that time.
On Monday, Mark and Grace cleared a path to the natural spring. I tried to convince Scott to walk down with me, but lucky for him Grace came out of the cabin just then and asked if he wanted to go with her to get some gas for the mowers. He grinned at me and quickly said yes to her. (My love for him was quickly waning!)
So I bit the bullet and headed down to the spring by myself, cautiously watching for any snakes. Naturally, every twig and branch looked like a poisonous reptile. As I made my way through the woods, I was suddenly struck by a profound thought, which literally stopped me in my tracks: Snakes=Satan=Sin. Here I had spent the whole weekend on the lookout for snakes, trying to avoid any areas where they might be hiding, but in my own personal life I could not remember trying to avoid sin quite as diligently! The thought of stepping on a snake or even getting within inches of one had me feeling uncomfortable and unnerved. Yet, I had to question the last time I purposely went out of my way to avoid a confrontation or temptation with sin. It's not that I look for ways to sin; I am just not on the lookout for them as I was with the snakes. I felt ashamed of that fact, and I resolved to be more aware of my day-to-day surroundings where temptation might strike when I least suspect it. Paul, in an almost amusing verbiage, described his attempt to avoid sin this way in Romans 7:
16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
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