Mention Boxing Day and deep in my subconsciousness I think of snakes! I blame my mum, to some degree, for the fact that she has passed onto me her deep-seated fear of anything that remotely resembles a snake – yet she would insist upon gathering us round the television set every year, on the 26th December to watch the latest James Bond movie. Now admittedly not every 007 film features a snake – but the boa constrictor which featured in Live and Let Die in 1973 and the reticulated python which made a guest appearance in Moonraker during Christmas 1979 were sufficient to influence my attitude towards such creatures as my mum screamed and covered her eyes begging us to let her know when it would be safe to open them again!
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Twenty odd years passed and I discovered that snakes are not native to every country in the world ; indeed Ireland is free of snakes (which probably explains why my parents moved from England to Ireland during The Troubles) as is New Zealand – which is top of my Mum’s bucket list countries to visit! I consider it a minor miracle that she actually holidayed in Australia a few years ago.
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In 1991 I visited the Philippines to work on a water project and missions trip with OMF international. I knew that there was a possibility that we might encounter snakes as we were staying in a remote tribal area 5 hours from the nearest hospital for the first 3 weeks and then in a jungle region for the final 3 weeks so I was diligent, always making loud noises at night when I ventured through the field at night to the long-drop toilet – scaring any snakes or poison toads from the pathway and probably disturbing the rest of the team too.
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Some of the local kids delighted in showing us baby black mambas and I quickly learnt to disguise my fear as that only encouraged them to insist that we took a closer look.
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A highlight of the trip was a day spent snorkelling from a catamaran off the coast of Mindanao. It was idyllic! I have always loved water sports and swimming and having spent 3 weeks living off rice and vegetables it was a pleasant surprise to discover tinned soft drinks in the cooler and fresh coffee on board. There were 7 of us on the team from NI and we were accompanied by the children of a missionary couple who hosted the Davao mission home.
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The water was crystal clear, and relatively warm as we gazed at the neon blue and green and red tropical fish – we even came across some strange black and brown eel like creatures known as sea snakes. Following the rationale that sea horses aren’t real horses we continued to enjoy swimming in the glorious Pacific ocean. The strangest thing I noted about the sea snake eel creatures was that they seemed to go completely limp like seaweed out of water. I knew this because one of the guys had great entertainment hooking the sea snakes out of the water with his snorkel tube and tossing them on to the backs of any unsuspecting person swimming his way! There were hundreds of these eel like creatures in the water so it didn’t take long for the other guys to begin retaliating in the same manner. It was harmless fun – though probably not for the sea snakes!
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That evening the mission hosts commented that they had heard about the sea snake encounter – I can still remember his words 30 odd years later “you do realise that the bite from a sea snake is sufficient to kill 20 head of water buffalo?”! We were stunned! He continued to say that they would only bite if provoked – and the guys had most definitely provoked them hooking them out of the water and tossing them at one another!
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But I learnt a few important lessons – the way the television portrays the snake is largely inaccurate. Yes we need to be wise as serpents but an irrational fear of the serpent can significantly impact a person’s life, how they live – looking under every stone to see if a snake has entered the house and restricting places they will visit in this beautiful world.
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The Hebrew word used to describe the serpent which deceived Eve in Genesis chapter 3 is ‘Nakhash’ which is interesting because it is also translated in Numbers 23:23 and 24:1 as ‘enchantment’ and ‘divination’. The enemy is subtle and dangerous but ultimately deceptive! We can chose to live in fear by attributing more power to him than we should – or we can foolishly play with fire naïve to the consequences. The truth is probably to be found somewhere in the middle – when we walk wisely we need not walk in fear. Fear is crippling.
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Jesus’ final words before the ascension were these: “miraculous signs will accompany those who believe: they will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak in new languages. They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won’t hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.” This is Truth – and anything which draws us away from the Great Commission is merely smoke and mirrors and the deceptive propaganda of the Enemy.
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Written by Roz Mitchell
