The last home we lived in Southern California was located at the bottom of the ‘Foothills’ on the east edge of Los Angels county. We were two houses away from the brush and the home of coyotes, deer, the occasional mountain lion and bear, as well as all kinds of snakes. Every year the fire department would come by to hand out pamphlets warning of wild animals and snakes, and every year before they left, they would end up walking out of the neighbor’s back yard with a bag of rattle snakes that had made a home under some bushes. Snakes were a common sight, but most of the ones we saw were king snakes (predators of the rattle snake) or common garden snakes.
We had a neighbor on the other side of us who had captured a garden snake when their son was very young and it became his ‘pet’. Twenty years later, we moved in next door to them. The snake was now about four feet long and they loved that snake like I love my dog.
One day I was in my back yard cleaning the pool in my bare feet when I found a huge snake. I had no idea if it was a ‘bad’ snake or a ‘good’ snake. I knew my snake-loving neighbor would know the difference… so I took a picture of the snake, then ran over to my neighbor’s home as fast as I could. As I rounded the corner and was running across their front lawn, I noticed something moving in the grass. I froze! A snake was slithering in the cool grass! My neighbors, who were all sitting on their porch, (and knew my fear of snakes) began to laugh as saw me stop in mid stride. They asked me why I was in a hurry… so I explained the fact that I had an intruder in my backyard, and I wanted to know if it was a “good snake” maybe they could capture the unwanted creature and release it back into the foothills (way far away) or if it was a ‘bad’ snake- would they please help me dispose of it. As I explained all of this, I was still frozen, standing on one leg. One of my neighbors stayed with the pet snake getting some sun in the grass, while the others came to check out the snake in my backyard. By the time we returned to evaluate the serpent, it had disappeared! I then remembered that I had taken a picture of the now missing snake. As the neighbors evaluated the picture on my phone, they assured me the missing snake was a simple garden snake. We joked the snake that ended up in my backyard could have been a long lost relative of their ‘pet’ in their front yard. We headed back to their front yard, when I remembered that they had a snake in the grass, and I wasn’t wearing any shoes. My neighbors gathered up the snake, and returned it to its warm cage, as I watched from the safety of my driveway.
I walked back to the house and put on some shoes, grabbed a shovel and some gardening gloves before I returned to the backyard to finish cleaning. Although I was told that my visitor was a ‘good’ snake, I wanted to make sure I was protected.
Although my amazing neighbors tried to assure me that the intruder in my backyard was a ‘good snake’, my fear of snakes had me jumpy and fearful. My shoes, my shovel, my garden gloves, and the reassurance from the ‘snake people’ next door did not give me the confidence I needed to overcome my fear. I spent some time in prayer, asking the Lord to give me peace and help me conquer my fear of what might be hiding in our backyard. I knew the only way to get past my anxiety and enjoy my own backyard again, was with help from the Lord.
“I leave the gift of peace with you—my peace. Not the kind of fragile peace given by the world, but my perfect peace. Don’t yield to fear or be troubled in your hearts—instead, be courageous.” John 14:27
