No Room for a Snake in the House

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of
God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Ephesians
6:10-11

Who put a rubber snake in here?



The ugly, scaly, black thing lying in the hallway was coiled with its head up just a bit. Even so, I kept a good distance as I leaned over to take a closer look. About that time, the rubber snake must have seen me because it slithered off towards the kitchen.

Thankfully, my two-year-old granddaughter, Katelyn, who hadn’t learned to fear anything, didn’t see the snake. If she had, she would have rushed past me and snatched it up. That could have been the end of Nana.




To be on the safe side, I grabbed Katelyn and picked her up. She started yelling and kicking for me to put her down. But I held on firmly as we dashed through the den and another hallway. Holding her tightly, I ran through the living room and out the front door. Crossing the front porch and side yard in record time, my feet barely touched the ground. I bound up the steps to my husband, Danny’s office and threw open the door. My abrupt entrance startled Danny.


I screamed. “There’s a snake in the house!”


He shrugged. “Well why didn’t you call me?”


“Because there was a snake between me and the phone.”


In a crisis Danny goes into his super calm mode, as if compensating for my fear. But I want him to jump up and throw on his Snake Catcher Cape. I want him to run and catch that snake.


Danny rose from his desk and walked down to the house. He searched upstairs, downstairs, and in the basement and then declared that he was certain the snake was no longer in the house. Danny said that the snake had gone back outside the same way it had come in.


Not being quite as sure of this as he was, I walked around looking at the floor for the remainder of the evening. After thoroughly searching the covers, I crawled into bed and prayed that we’d see that snake one more time. I prayed that we’d catch it so I could be certain that the snake wasn’t putting on his nightcap and turning in as well, somewhere else in the house.


A few days passed without another visit from the snake so I began to relax and agreed with Danny that the snake preferred to live outside. The following Saturday morning as Danny mowed the grass, I walked out to see him. When I reached the basement steps, something on the ground caught my eye. There it was. God answered my prayer. In His mercy, He even let us find the snake outside instead of inside the house. Catching Danny’s eye, I pointed very emphatically to the ground. Realizing immediately what I was pointing to, he turned off the lawn mover and threw on his Snake Catcher Cape. Danny came running and in one swift motion reached down and grabbed the snake behind its head. Danny put the snake in a box and gave it to a friend who actually likes black snakes.


Later as Danny and I took a good look at our 80-year-old house, we realized that we’d had a false sense of security. We found cracks and holes that a snake could easily slither through. Danny then spent a full day snake-proofing our home


This caused me to think how easy it is to have a false sense of security in other areas of our lives. We may see something potentially dangerous and think it’s not real. It won’t harm us. And then it slithers off. We may think that we have no cracks big enough for anything to slip through. We would never be tempted. We know right from wrong. We may even go to church. But something finds a hole just big enough to squeeze in. Sin can cause a lot of anxiety. It can wreak havoc in our lives if not caught and dealt with.


I think I’ll take a good look at my spiritual house. See if there are any areas that need spiritual caulking. Talking with God and reading His Word daily will help prevent cracks. Prevention really is best, in dealing with sin, and in keeping out snakes. And there really is no room for a snake in my house - physically or spiritually.