Danger!!!!

Danger

Living in Australia can have it’s moments of danger, especially in a country with some of the world’s deadliest snakes. I grew up in the bush with a well developed “sixth sense”, always aware in the background of my mind of their existence and always ready to respond. Raising our girls on 2500 acres of a sheep and cattle property, kept my sixth sense well sharpened. The snakes moved mostly under the cover of darkness, sleeping lazily in the sun by day, curled up in a spot designed to gather up the sun’s warmth. The dams in each paddock and the lake were an added attraction for wandering snakes as it afforded a  easy watering spot for them. It is never safe to walk on the low side of a dam, for around the wavering reeds will be found a sunning snake or two, hence one always walks on the high side of a dam. Our girls were taught of their dangers, learned their habits and knew how to avoid them and to stay safe.

We lived in an old wooden farmhouse with a more recently added laundry built hastily onto the side of the house. To exit the back of our house, we took the main door out from the play room, stepping down into the laundry, and then crossing the cement floor, to leave through another door. Early one morning, after my husband had departed for work on the other side of the large property, I was gathering up the dirty washing, to take hurriedly to the laundry. I quickly opened the main door leading out from our playroom, and before I could take that step down into the laundry, I noticed a poisonous snake in it’s full blackness lying leisurely on the cold cement floor. I immediately shut the door again and promptly dropped the unclean washing on the floor, pushing it tightly into the crack under the door. My husband was usually not contactable during the day, leaving me quite isolated with three little ones. However, this day his employer was on the property. I rang the large main homestead to alert his boss to my current dangerous position and to pass a message onto my husband to come and deal at once with the situation.

Gazing out of the front windows of my house, waiting in anticipation for my husband’s arrival, I saw a large swirl of dust. Driving at break neck speed on the rough, dirt road was my husband’s boss in his city BMW. He had decided that he himself would deal with the imminent danger. He braked ever so slightly, as he came to the causeway, careening over it’s rocky surface and back up onto the dirt road once more. In a gathering cloud of dust he frantically made it to the back of my house, leaped out of his car, rifle in hand and stood courageously by my laundry door. I had managed to make it back from the front of my house, removed my dirty laundry from the doorway and cracked my door open  enough to speak with him. Impatiently he barked at me, “Where is the snake?” I looked. It was no longer there. I started to speak, stumbling over my words and muttering about how it was now no longer in the spot I had last seen it. My eyes roamed over the laundry slowly, taking in each nook and cranny, wondering where the snake had holed up. Angrily he launched into his lecture, “You must never take your eyes off a snake! You always keep your eyes on a snake!”. Suddenly in fright he jumped. He had been standing just outside my laundry door, right next to the deadly snake. In haste he collected himself, squared his shoulders, took on the role of grand protector, stepped back, aimed and fired and the snake was no more. I refrained from repeating his own words back to him, about never taking his eyes off a snake but it did give our family a good laugh afterwards.

We too have an enemy that seeks to take our lives. The Bible reveals to us who he is, what his plans are and how he is a already a defeated foe. However, the Bible also calls to us to be watchful, to be ready, to be alert, to always be aware of the plans of the enemy for each one of us. Do I flee to the shelter of Jesus at the faintest sight of the enemy or do I think I can handle this on my own? Do I really understand the dangers around me and my family? Am I alert and watchful or am I ignorant of his plans for my life and the lives of those I love? God calls for me to  choose each day to be protected by the full of armour of God. Will I make that choice? Will you?

1 Peter 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 

Luke 21:36 "But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

Eph 6:10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armour of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places