A few years back, I was living up Hell’s Canyon running a Christian retreat center. When a friend came to visit, we decided to take a hike. As we climbed, we came across a harmless, but dead, bull snake in the grass, lying across the trail. Not so unusual. We stepped around it and moved on.
Farther up the trail, we came across another snake—dead also. By the time we came to the third one, I smelled a rat. When I tapped the snake with a stick, a forked back tongue shot out of its mouth, snapping me awake. We had met three, cold, nearly dormant, but very much alive, snakes that for the most part had looked very much alike.
I grabbed my camera, bent down, took a picture of the snake and his tongue, and went on about our hike.
Later, when I showed the picture to a snake-savvy friend, he squawked about how close I’d stood to a RATTLESNAKE! The first two snakes had not been rattlers. So when I came upon the third snake in the grass, with its tail hidden under a leaf, I had assumed it to be the same. But one of these things was not like the others.
Life is sometimes like that. Safety requires discernment. Beware the snake in the grass… Believing first impressions, we can become trapped in a lie. Trusting too soon, we tread a dangerous path. Standing too close, we will learn the pain of the bite.
Pray. Ask for discernment. Listen to it, trust it, heed it. And when they reveal themselves to you, believe them.
Amen.
Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies. Snake venom drips from their lips. ~ Psalm 10:9 NLT
They mark the luckless, then wait like a hunter in a blind, When the poor wretch wanders too close, they stab him in the back. ~ Psalm 10:9 MSG
Jan Cline says
It seems that more and more we need to be aware of our surroundings. We forget we have an enemy who wants to trip us up. Blessings!
Joanna Morgan says
Isn’t that the truth. Thanks Jan.