And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. Genesis 2:15
Today is the day that many people in our part of the world pretend they are Irish. Green shirts, green ties, green hats, green beverages, and fake shamrocks abound, or at least they would if we weren’t under so many coronavirus restrictions. It’s called St. Patrick’s day, in honour of a Briton who was presumably converted to Christianity around 400 AD, after being kidnapped and taken to Ireland to tend sheep. After escaping, he is reported to have spent most of the rest of his life seeking to convert the Irish people. One of the most common legends about this man was his campaign to rid the Emerald Isle of snakes. Although there is no evidence that Ireland ever did have snakes, he is said to have banished them. Unlikely as the legend seems, we can agree with the idea; snakes are generally unwelcome creatures. Did you ever wonder what would have happened in Eden if Adam had kept the snakes out?
Adam was given a responsibility to dress and keep the garden. It would not have been a difficult task; there were no weeds, thistles, or thorns at that time, at least not in their current state. But he should also have kept out the creatures that could cause problems… and that included the snakes. An absence of snakes would have meant no temptation for his wife. But just like Adam, we tend to ignore or neglect to remove some of the snakes that creep in among us to cause trouble. And just like Adam, we suffer the consequences every day.
What are some of the snakes that we fail to evict when we should? Some of the reading material that we have in our homes could be trouble. So could some of the media from which we obtain our information and our entertainment. What about our companions, which of them infect our minds with inappropriate words and ideas? And how about the schools where we send our children, with their denial of God, their refusal for prayer, and their focus on evolution and humanism? We don’t have to look far to find the snakes!
A good exercise today is to start looking for the snakes, and evict them from our minds, our companionships, our families, and our homes. If we don’t, they will poison us and those around us. – Jim MacIntosh