real deal religion: We Finally Got Him: )

Here's the snake in question... It's over 5' long now (or was, haha)

This year we’ve killed so many snakes that it’s not even funny. For some reason even though we keep more of the property maintained (i.e., weed-eated and manicured not ‘jungley’... not a word, I know) we’ve seen and killed more this year than in previous years.

There are a lot of different snakes here (mostly poisonous, of course), and we’ve killed several different kinds, but there are 2 kinds that we seem to see the most. One is called a Jararaca (a pit viper) and the other is a green snake (not sure of the name) that’s pretty much invisible when it’s in the trees.

Even though the Jararaca are extremely dangerous (and one of the most deadly in the world) they pretty much leave you alone unless you mess with them. But the green ones- they’re a different story. They’re bold and they’re aggressive. If you remember, in an earlier blog a couple of years ago (click HERE), our kids were held hostage by one of these ‘green snakes’ as it jumped out of a tree, stood almost upright, reared back, hissed at them and blocked the path so that they couldn’t pass. It was a literal stand-off for a few minutes as the snake just guarded this particular path out in the jungle.

Last year MJ was sweeping our front porch one quite afternoon and I was sitting there reading. All of a sudden she jumped backwards (startled) and said in a high pitched voice, “ooooh”- all at the same time. One of those long green snakes (about 4’ long) slithered from under the couch and right over the top of her foot (oh yeah, she was wearing flip flops too!) and right across our porch and into our side yard! I ran and tried to hit it with something (can’t remember what it was... I think it was a rake or something) but I missed it because it was too fast.

Then, within a few days of that occurrence, Matthew and Papa were working on something at the shop right next to the house and they looked down and the same long green snake was slithering boldly beneath their feet right where they were working! It’s like it was thumbing it’s nose at them or something (metaphorically, that is... FYI- snakes don’t have thumbs) and saying, “I could care less if you see me or if you’re working here- I’m coming through whether you like it or not. So jump back before I bite you”

It got away before any of us could kill it.

Over the past year or so, this particular snake has made an occasional appearance at the house just to let us know that it’s still here and to keep us on our toes. It’s really smart too. It’s like it’ll hang around long enough to mock you but then as soon as someone brings a machete’ out (or any other weapon) it’s gone! But the tide has officially turned: )

I was trying to finish a small project when out of nowhere Gabriel came running up to me and was saying, “the snake is trying to get into our bedroom! The snake is trying to get into our bedroom!” I didn’t have a machete’ with me and there were no other weapons handy so I grabbed the closest thing I could find on such quick notice... a piece of lumber I was working with.

So off we ran to stop the snake from going into his bedroom and hopefully kill it. When we got there it was, of course, gone. So we looked and looked and then out of the corner of our eye there it was- outside MJ’s kitchen window crawling up the hill! I threw the board (about 20’) and missed it. It was flying now (not literally snakes don’t have wings, duh) and I ran up the hill to try to kill it again. By this time it was slithering speedily down the steps and toward the fence. I threw the board again and this time I hit it but it was only stunned and continued through the fence and onto the other side. It started climbing a tree and I yelled for Matthew. He came and jumped over the fence with another board and, whack! He got it: ) It was still alive so he inflicted a few more blows to make sure that it was, shall we say, “expired.” And it was.

So why am I writing about a snake? I mean, we’ve killed so many of them so what’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is this- this thing has been a nuisance to us for a couple of years now and it’s finally gone. It’s something that we could never get rid of because it was so cunning and it always eluded us. And the fact the we don’t have to deal with it anymore is awesome and something to be celebrated.

I wasn’t planning on trying to turn this into a spiritual illustration, but as I’m sitting here writing, it kind of reminds me of the devil. He’s very cunning and he seems to like to poke his head into our lives and even sometimes mock us to our faces every now and again. But the day is coming when Jesus returns and he’ll be done! If you read Revelation 20 but his future is pretty bleak: ) There'll be no more slithering into our lives and tormenting us with all his junk because Jesus is going to change everything once and for all. Even more than me celebrating the end of a snake at our house- that’ll be a day we all can truly celebrate forever.

On a different note, Maryssa was at school on Friday and she asked the teacher for a cup to go and get some water. (They don’t have water fountains at her school and they use disposable cups.)

Her teacher told her that there was a cup already there (at the place they get water). So Maryssa went out to the hall and much to her surprise there was a cup there! It was one that was ‘wired’ to the faucet so that nobody walked off with it. Hahaha!!!!! Things that make you go “Hmmmmm.”