The Day The Snake Jumped Down My Momma's Housecoat

(Except for that one time. See below)

I hope somehow that my momma in Heaven, bless her heart, is able to get the gist of what I'm trying to tell here because I'm quite sure that she could supply much more appropriate adjectives than I ever could. This is about the day she got up close and personal with a snake. It jumped down her housecoat. Yep.

I feel like y'all already know my momma because I write about her so much, but in case you didn't have the pleasure, let me try to describe her for you. She was vertically challenged and in a perpetual state of readiness for any battle, for she had many. (Battles included anything real or imagined; physical, mental, or spiritual; fighting for the underdog; running off Satan himself.) She was probably the sweetest momma that God ever placed on the face of this earth - unless and until something scary or threatening was happening - and then (I always thought) she could battle with any snake, real or otherwise - until That Day.

It was a hot day, around the third of June on a sleepy dusty Delta day, the day that my momma was picking pole beans in the garden. (Do you have a song stuck in your head now? Gotcha!) Up until her later years, she always wore homemade dresses; she never wore pants until she was probably at least 60 years old. And I'm not even sure why; I wish I had asked her that. But back to the situation at hand. On this hot summer day, she was wearing a sleeveless housecoat that zipped up the front, and she had it unzipped a couple of inches to get more air circulating. Because she was short, she was pulling down the overhanging pole beans with a hoe. As she tugged on the vine, a grasshopper jumped down the two inch opening of her partially unzipped housecoat. That alone would have caused me to meet Jesus that very minute. But you'd better be sitting down for this - - - in less than a split second later, A SNAKE jumped in after the grasshopper.

I don't even need to tell the rest of this story, because even using your most vivid imagination, you can't begin to understand how scared she was. There are just no words. But somehow she managed to get the snake out as she was sprinting and high jumping out of the garden. It would be a story that would be told every time someone thought they had a good snake story. She always won, hands down.

But the important part of this is that my momma would have never in a million years gone into that garden had she known there was a snake. Never.

But what about the things that are just as scary as a SNAKE that we have no warning of? Just think about it; there's lots of things that come into our lives that have the capability to destroy us. As long as we can see impending danger, we usually have the good sense to run, but sometimes danger comes disguised as something quite appealing, doesn't it. If we only had a way to escape. Oh but wait - we DO have a way to escape, don't we?

I have heard people say that God won't give us more than we can handle, but I read something today that really struck a chord with me. I think that maybe God DOES give us things we can't handle so that HE can step in and handle it for us. Do we invite Him in to help us through those rough times? He told us many times throughout scripture that he would never leave us nor forsake us, so for whatever we may be going through, God is right there with us to help carry our burden. This I know firsthand. What a loving Father He is!

Be quick to run from a snake. Be quick to run from anything that poses a danger to your safety. But be even quicker to run to The One who will welcome you with open arms.

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them;

for the Lord your God, He is the One who goes with you.

He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:6