Seeing Snakes
Nov. 18, 2018. This colored pencil drawing was born out of a summer of seeing snakes - literal and figurative. This year I've seen snakes everywhere. I'm terrified of snakes, so this has been a dreadful experience. I have run into five in my yard, and six in my everyday life on walks and in nature. Three of those snakes were copperheads, the rest were harmless, but still scared me silly. I seriously have not seen so many snakes, ever like I have this year. This all came to a head when, while one evening making my son dinner I turned around in my kitchen and found a snake on my kitchen counter. To this day, i still have NO idea how it got on my counter, but it shook me up to the core.
Well, the next day was Sunday and the preacher gave a sermon and used this verse: Matt. 7:9-11 "You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not!" I remember thinking, I'm not asking for snakes and yet you are giving them to me, God. These couldn't all be coincidences. I decided, maybe God was trying to tell me something or get my attention. It was at this point I found myself praying, "God, teach me the lesson of the snake. What are you trying to tell me here?" I found myself meditating on the passage from the sermon and a week later the answer dawned on me. That passage continued Matt 7:11, "So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him."
What was the lesson of the snake you ask? I realized I've recently been looking at some of God's gifts in my life and calling them snakes, because I don't understand how they could be good.
Sometimes when God doesn't give me what I want and answers another way that doesn't fit my plan, I get upset and jump to label it a snake. But, as God tells us, HE also doesn't give us snakes when we ask for fish. So maybe I can't see how the gift is good right now, but I must trust that it is, because I have a Father who loves me more than I love my own son.
Update: It's been a year since I finished this artwork to remind me of the lesson of the snake, and I have only seen two snakes while gardening this year (both little harmless brown snakes). Every time I see or think of snakes now, I ask myself, "Is there something that God has given me in my life that I'm labeling a bad gift? God says he doesn't give bad gifts, so I must choose to trust it is good."
Thanks, Father, for the lesson of the snake. I needed it!
Tags:
Heart-to-Heart
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