On the whole, I’m a very brave, bold bird. Very little phases me in life, and I’m afraid that I’ve even been known to chase a hungry Labrador away from its bowl so I could eat all of its food up myself. But before you all shout ‘shame!’ at me, I’d like to confess that there are a couple of things which will always press my ‘panic button.’ I have an inbuilt fear of birds of prey, and I get the ultimate heebie-jeebies if I catch sight of a snake! So, I wasn’t too happy when my owner recently came home from a walk and showed me a photo of an adder that he’d met along the way. You see, back in deepest Senegal, -over the millennia, -my ancestors have had to deal with puff adders, boomslangs and spitting cobras, so a fear of both snakes and birds of prey is very much built into my D.N.A.
And I suppose that his picture served as a reminder that beautiful and amazing as our world can be, it’s still crammed full of menace and threat. Danger lurks around a great many corners, so that in order to survive, we all need to keep our guards firmly up. And danger isn’t always a snake or bird of prey; it can often be something that appears quite innocuous, and which lures us into a false sense of security. For example, think of all those humans who share a general acceptance of how things are, instead of fighting to make them better for all. And then, what about the lure of fortune, fame and adoration? Yes, even some presidents can fall foul of that one. And what about the fruits of dishonesty, corruption or criminality? They are usually linked to greed and self-promotion, and maybe they are simply modern-day puff adders in disguise. Or maybe the suppression of others for our personal gain is when we subconsciously turn ourselves into pythons and boas as we slowly constrict the life out of those that are poor and vulnerable. And if we subtly build up poison in our lives, then maybe the day will come when we accidentally sink our fangs into ourselves. And yes, there are even some large human countries that have been known to do just that. It’s called implosion.
For all of us, the only sure-fire way of steering a safe and narrow course through life is to welcome Jesus into our lives to pilot our ship. I’m now a whole lot better than I used to be, -a reformed character, -so I haven’t stormed the dog bowl in a long while. And so long as I keep Jesus in my heart, I won’t be doing that again.
“Self-love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens to stumble upon it.”
(Lord Byron: [1788-1824]: English romantic poet and artist).
“Don’t touch me, I’m full of snakes.”
(Jack Kerouac: [1922-1969]: American novelist, poet and musician).
“Temptation is the devil looking through the keyhole. Yielding is opening the door and inviting him in.”
(Billy Sunday: [1862-1935]: American evangelist and former baseball player).
“As the most dangerous winds enter at little openings, so the devil never enters more dangerously than by little, unobserved incidents, which seem to be nothing, yet insensibly opens the heart to greater temptation.” (John Wesley: [1703-1791]: English Anglican cleric, theologian and evangelist who founded the Methodist movement).
“There is a danger that threatens everyone in the church, all of us. The danger of worldliness. It leads us to vanity, arrogance and pride.” (Pope Francis: [1936-2025]: Pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church between 2013 & 2025).
“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
Comments