My wife Leah and I keep snakes. I know that snakes are not some people's idea of good pets to have, but we enjoy having them (even though I must admit I'm afraid of snakes). Some snakes, like king snakes and cobras, eat other snakes. God created them to do that, and even made king snakes immune to the deadly venom people need to be wary of. A copperhead, beautiful but venomous, recently invaded the living area of a friend of my brother's. While many people would simply kill it on the spot, he shooed it into a box and gave it to my brother, who in turn brought it to me. We, my brother and I, gave it to Cleo, a lovely lavender king snake Leah and I have.
Yes, I realize that may seem cruel to some, but feeding a snake to a snake is no more cruel than feeding a mouse to a snake. Why should the life of a mouse be worth less than the life of a snake? I dare say that more people keep mice as pets than snakes. Anyway, we put them together, and Cleo immediately withdrew, almost hiding. I couldn't believe it. What was she doing? Not acting like a king snake to my eyes. She slithered under her hide box and left my brother and I to watch the copperhead explore the tank. But soon something happened that caught all of us but Leah by surprise. When I write all of us, I mean my brother, me and the copperhead. In under a second, so quickly it seemed instant, Cleo shot out from under the hide box and grabbed the copperhead by the nose. Her mouth snapped shut over the copperhead's head and her body wrapped the copperhead in a tight squeeze as she began to pull and squash the life out of the other snake.
The copperhead never realized its danger and never had a chance to fight. Its strength that comes from its bite had been neutralized right away, and there was no escape. Before too long there was once again only one snake in the tank, a fat, full and happy king snake named Cleopatra that a person can handle without fear had devoured the venomous copperhead.
This morning I checked on Cleo and saw her content, and maybe a little smug. It occurred to me that life can be like the feeding I described above. We can be prowling along, somewhere we shouldn't be, and get caught up. We may be confident in our strength and ability to survive. We might even see ourselves as venomous and able to defend ourselves against anyone or anything that would try to hurt us. But there is an enemy that is hungry and seeking whom he may devour, and when he spots us in his territory we're in trouble. With a quickness that we can't see coming, he strikes, and all our defenses and strength are for naught. He will bite and squeeze the life out of us before we have any chance to fight back, and even if we do somehow manage to struggle we are over matched, and he is immune to our venom.
We can not, must not, rely on our own thinking, strength and defenses to protect us against the attacks of the enemy. It's the natural order of things that we will lose when we do. But even though we are the prey of thus spiritual predator, we can be transformed into something else, the children of God. When we become His, we find that His protection and strength can keep us safe in a way that we cannot. Satan may bite, he may squeeze, and there is no doubt that he will attack if and when we give him the opportunity, but he will not be able to kill and consume us once we belong to God.
Still, life is better and a lot more enjoyable when we don't need to be rescued. When we stay close to God and in His will, we don't find ourselves in the enemy's tank, He may be hunting us, but we stay sheltered in the shadow of the wings of the Mighty One who will cause the snake that would destroy us to flee and hide. Through relationship with God and staying in His will we can keep our lives from becoming snake food.
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