What is that?

The first snake of the season bit the dust last week thanks to yours truly. Yes, it has begun. It has been a beautiful and enjoyable fall, winter, and spring of cool to cold weather. I have loved letting my guard down a bit. Our guards have been back up for the past month or so with warmer weather, but I honestly did not anticipate seeing one of my enemies this soon.

I was driving on our road, perhaps a half of a mile up from the house. All three kids were in the car with me. We all spotted it in the road at about the same time. We drove up pretty close and took a good look. We needed to see if it was a rattler or a bull snake. The head was kind of turned where we couldn't see it, so we looked at the skin and the tail. It was a little hard to tell (we are a bit out of practice since our last rattler was August 25), but the consensus was that it was more likely a rattler than not. The skin was dull and the tail appeared to have rings. I used my signature vehicular snake-acide move and backed up, drove forward and slammed on my brakes when on top of the snake. It worked like a charm. There was no question that the snake had met its demise.

Unfortunately, we were able to now examine him better and realized that he was a bull snake. There are defense mechanisms that this harmless snake uses that are not to its benefit. A bull snake will even pretend to shake its "rattle" and coil up and reshape its head to look triangular. I suppose that that may help in the animal kingdom, but with this human it backfires. There is such a similarity that I couldn't tell in the time of decision. It was a good refresher on the looks of the bull versus the rattler for the beginning of our snaky season.

I was saddened that I had killed what is supposed to be a "good" snake. It did, however, make me stop and think about a life lesson. What am I trying to emulate or imitate? What is it that I think will help me survive but is actually leading me into more danger? Sometimes I think we can get sucked into the world and its glitter and can begin to want to look like others-- in our dress, hair, speech, attitude, lifestyle, and even priorities and drives. It is subtle--- so subtle. Before we know it, we are a bull, but we are looking like a rattler.

We have to be careful who or what we are aspiring to look like. We are clothed with Christ's righteousness if we belong to Him. Our person to be looking more and more like is Jesus. May there be no mistake when others look at us in our everyday life on the road. I hope they don't have to stop and debate- "is she good? is she deadly? what is she?" May there be no question that I am who I am because of Christ and that my life is hidden in Him.

Colossians 3:1-3 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."