Just a random story about my life
So, I have to tell you about a stupid dream that I had Friday night. Some time during the night my wife woke me up and said, “what is wrong with you?” According to her, I had been flailing and fighting like I was having a seizure. I was just having a dream, the worst kind of dream, a snake dream. I have them often because I really hate snakes! I will willingly kiss a black widow spider on it‘s little hairy spider lips before I will willingly stand near a rubber snake. Anyway, back to my dream. I have been traveling a lot lately so it is no surprise that I was loading June bug’s car up for a trip in this very vivid dream. As I am stowing the luggage away I hear her scream from the other side of the vehicle. At first I don’t recognize what she is saying but then I understand. She is saying, “Watch out, there is a benign snake”. Benign? What an odd description of a snake, “benign”. I realize now that word can mean calm, kind or gentle but I was not smart enough to know that awake, I didn’t know that at all until I googled it just now. I don’t think I understood that definition of the word in my dream but was thinking of it in a medical sense. June bug works with medical terminology and doctor talk interests her, so my sleeping mind had her saying those words instead of something more “snake appropriate”. I don’t always make sense in my dreams. I have been known to say and do some dumb stuff while awake so it is not surprising that in my subconscious that I would keep the crazy going. In this dream, as soon as I hear her words I look down at my feet and there is a grayish brown snake with jaws bigger than a Kennedy with a bad case of the mumps coiling back, about to strike my legs. I scream, “that is no benign snake!” I suppose that it was a malignant snake because it most certainly was not “benign”. In my dream I tried to jump on top of June bug’s KIA. Sadly, I am overweight even in my dreams, so I didn’t reach the height needed to escape. Lucky for me, Junebug woke me just before that not so “benign snake” got me. Whew, that was a close one!
It isn’t often that I remember my dreams and it is even more rare for them to make sense but this one I do remember and perhaps there is a little sense to be made. Satan first appeared in the garden in the form of a serpent and Eve was not at all afraid when he approached her. Perhaps in her mind she said, “there is a benign snake” as she listened to his temptation. Oh, but that was no benign snake! His lies and misrepresentations proved very dangerous for all of mankind. He tricked her into disobeying God and her husband soon followed, plunging humanity into sin. The story of the fall of Adam and Eve is no doubt the reason the Bible refers to the devil as “that old serpent”(Rev. 12:9; 20:2) No, that was no benign snake and he has not changed. He is called a thief (Jn 10:10) and a liar (Jn 8:44). He will distort your perception of reality and rob you of every blessing possible. In my dream, I ran from the snake and Adam and Eve should have too. For you and I, running from this enemy is always the wise choice. No matter which angel of light he attempts to disguise himself, beware he is no benign snake. I tried to get away in my dreams but I know one who did the opposite. The very first prophecy of Jesus in all of the Bible was found just after Adam’s fall.
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Genesis 3:15)
God promised a child that would be unlike any other, a virgin born (seed of the woman) son who would not run away from the snake but instead would crush his head and take away his power. My Jesus defeated that old serpent when he died on the cross and defeated death at his resurrection. The snake is still striking but his fate is sealed. The book of Isaiah tells us of a day in which we will look at that serpent, powerless and defeated and say, “is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms…?” (Is 14:15-17). I hate snakes, especially that one and I am so thankful for the one that took the poison from his bite!