There is a story of a young man who was a new Christian.  He was eager to learn more about Christ and all the other things that had stirred his heart.

Not having been raised in a Christian home and having little exposure to the Bible in his life, he had only a small understanding the Bible or even how to read it.

He decided to just flip through the pages,  reading whatever verse his finger landed on.  On the first try, he came to the verse, “And Judas went and hanged himself.”

A little puzzled, he flipped through the pages again, “Go ye therefore and do likewise.”

It’s not just what you’re studying.  It’s how you study it.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know that our dogs have a particular bark we call the “snake bark”, that lets you know the dog has found a snake.  (There is also the “small varmint bark” usually a squirrel.  A “bigger varmint” bark, such as a big coon or dog.  And a “somebody’s coming up the driveway” bark.  A convenient alarm system.)

Yesterday afternoon, the dogs were getting restless, so I decided to take them on a short walk down the east trail and back.  When we got back to the house, I went over to the garden to check on it and pull some weeds.  The dogs just kind of  pup-dogged around until I started heading to the house.

Per routine, which the dogs know well, I checked their feet on the front porch just in front of the door.  Can’t have dirty puppy feet in the house. 

Finding all feet clean, I glanced up at the railing, right into the eyes of a snake, stretching his head out towards me to investigate this odd creature leaning near him (namely me).

 

I let out a yelp, jumped backwards about four feet, then started laughing as I realized it was just a chicken snake.  He had woven himself around the grating on the porch and had stretched quite far out, probably looking for a higher vantage point before encountering me.

Immediately after my yelp, I heard Matt’s recliner foot slam down, so I knew he was hurrying to the door.  I was still laughing when he came out.  The snake at this point had decided that there was entirely too much activity nearby, and was heading back to the ground.

I said, “Look, it’s a snake!” 

Matt replied,” I know.  I heard your ‘snake bark’.  I then heard you laugh, so I knew it wasn’t dangerous.”

Good stuff.  ;-)

We watched the snake find his way to a convenient hole in the siding he obviously already knew about.  That’s fine with us, as he can help keep the mouse population under the house in check.  A chicken snake is better than a cat for that.

 

-- I don’t have a picture of the snake, but I found one that is pretty similar.  The one I saw was a dark variant of the chicken snake, or rat snake as it is also called, though they can come in several different shades and colors.  They are incredible climbers, too, which explains how he got up on the railing.