The Church Mouse: Snakes, Sin and Being Human
The Church Mouse: Snakes, Sin and Being Human
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. – 1 John 1:9
Snakes! I saw a very large snake in my driveway today. I do not like snakes! Snakes I do not like!!! I do not even like to look at pictures of snakes. I know that several people say snakes are useful, they kill bugs and eat mice. (Yikes!)
To me the only good snake is a dead snake! Oh, I know some people will say, leave a snake alone and it will not bother you. But, when I see a snake I know it could make me hurt myself, while I am trying to get away from from it.
One of my friends tells me that they are not afraid of snakes. However, their family told me a different story. They said they were going to have to buy another hanging basket for their front porch. When I ask why? They told me this story.
They took one of the baskets down last week to water it and there was a black snake in it. I still did not understand why they would need to replace the basket, until they laughingly said. “We are not afraid of snakes if we have a hoe handy.” They chopped that hanging basket to pieces with the hoe in order to kill the snake.
We had a good laugh about this story. However, on the other hand they were worried that it might make them look bad because they didn’t want anyone to know they really were afraid of snakes. I told them not to worry, because I am not sure that I would have stayed around long enough to chop up the basket and the snake. They said the reason they were upset over telling me about it, was that it makes them looked bad and like they had lied to me about not being afraid of snakes after all. I thought it has made them look brave. I would have been long gone when, seeing the snake.
That made me think about this, sometimes we as Christians get caught up in all the things we think we are supposed to be doing as the people of God. We get so busy putting on a show about being a Christian that we forget we are the people of God. We are often trying to be big and brave. When instead we are scared to admit we are human. We certainly do not want anyone to find out that we can and do sin just like the unsaved of the world. We never want to admit that we have done something wrong. After all……we are Christians!
We are perfect, right?
WRONG! We are Christians, we are forgiven.
We seem to forget we can go to God for forgiveness. So it is ok to be scared of snakes and other things in life. We do not have to be big and brave. It is ok if we make a mistake…God still loves us! We just need to ask Him to forgive us; and because He loves us, He will forgive us. Remember God knows our weakness and He wants us to depend on Him in our time of need.
Prayer- Father God, help us to be brave enough to ask for your guidance in our lives. Help to remember when we are scared that you are right beside us. Remind us that you will never leave us and that you are always waiting for us to ask for your help. Remind us to ask you for forgiveness every day of our lives. Amen.
The Church Mouse
Work hard. Pray harder!
