Snakebit!

Yesterday afternoon before my council meeting, I had my kids and dog outside.  I was busying myself with my new pressure washer, cleaning off sidewalks that hadn't seen one of those things in many, many years.  The kids were meandering up and down the sidewalks with their bikes and tricycles.  They were splashing in the water puddles left by the washing.

My dog was digging around in the bushes messing around with something she considered interesting.

Suddenly, the dog bolted across the yard and began pawing at her nose.

I looked at where she had been and found nothing.

Curiously, I thought she had suffered a bee or wasp sting, nothing more.  Well, I was wrong.

That evening after council, my wife and I started calling for our mutt.  She wasn't in the house.  While shuffling the kids into the house, the dog had apparently been consumed with her bite and hadn't followed.  We opened the front door, and our mutt's face looked like a St. Bernard! 

Uh oh!

Luckily, one of my congregation members is a vet.  And he's on council.  I knew he was still up, so I called him and gave him my thoughts that my dog may have been snake bit.

We were blessed that he had all he needed in his truck, and just a few minutes later, he and his wife pulled up to the parsonage.  Five shots later, my dog was resting and recuperating.

This morning, the swelling is greatly reduced, and I can see the bite marks.  It was a smaller snake that bit her.  Probably a copperhead.  Could have been a rattle-snake or cotton-mouth, but unlikely for the last two.  There are numerous copperheads around the area.

So, now we are in a state of constant vigilance.  This morning, I poked around with a shovel in the grass and leaves where I believe my dog was bit.  We're making sure the kids play outside with closed toe shoes (for the moment).  I'll be doing some yard work very quickly to minimize the places snakes can hide and make sure most stuff is visible--i.e. no tall grass.

It's one thing for a dog to take it on the chin with a snakebite, it would be a totally different thing if it were one of my kids.

Thinking about this experience this morning actually leads be back to another "snake bite."  You know, the one in the Garden, a long, long time ago. 

Adam and Eve took it on the chin when the serpent led them astray.  They, and humanity, suffered the consequences of that action and are still suffering from it.

God intervened and gave the inoculation.  This Sunday, we will celebrate that blessed event--the life saving "shot" which restored humanity.

But the question is: how much do we learn from the event?  How much to do we remain constantly vigilant so that we do not get bit again?

Now, none of us can be perfect.  We're bound to fail.  It's just part of our nature.

But how many of us go poking and prodding around places where we know snakes gather?  How many of us have seen snakes in a particular place and keep going back against our better judgment?  How many of us handle snakes on a daily or weekly basis and are lulled into a false sense of security? 

And then...

WHAM!

We get bit.  Again.

Fortunately, God keeps rushing medicine to us.  Fortunately, He has a limitless supply.  But is it too much to ask of us to try to prevent those bites from happening?