Snakes on a Plain

6/11/07

I killed not one, but two snakes today. It reminded me of Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 where it says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Boy, did I crush their heads! It was like the opening scene in The Passion of the Christ where Jesus smashes the head of the snake with his heel. Whenever I kill a snake I feel like I’m fulfilling God’s curse on the serpent. Both of them tried to strike my heel but they didn’t take into account that I was wearing blue rubber boots that are snake fang resistant. I don’t know much about snakes but I’m pretty sure one was a baby anaconda and the other was a mix between a king cobra and a boa constrictor. They were each about as thick as a watermelon and at least 60 or 70 feet long, just kidding but seriously they were about two feet long and they had huge fangs with dripping venom and eyes red enough set dry ice ablaze.

I spent most of my day splitting wood and believe me, Paul Bunyon and his lopsided blue ox couldn’t hold a candle to the amount of wood that I chopped. And it’s not the easy kind of chopping wood either. It’s apple wood, the toughest wood known to mankind. Apparently the trees from which this wood originated were plagued with every kind of knot and twist imaginable. All of the trees received the recessive gene when it came to straightness. It usually takes about 9-17 chops to complete a satisfactory split and that’s just for one log. Now I know you’re probably saying to yourself, “Evan, have you tried hitting the wood with the sharp edge of the ax?” Very funny, and yes I’m holding the ax correctly. The wood is just so dense. It wasn’t meant to be split and used for fires. It was meant to be dropped from the tops of castles on the heads of your enemies as they prepare to besiege your place of dwelling.

At night, I’ve been reading about Solomon in 1 Kings. Solomon has always interested me because he was the wisest man to ever live. My favorite book of the Bible is Ecclesiastes. In the past when I would read Ecclesiastes, I’d wonder why God allowed Solomon to do all of those worldly things such as indulging in every kind of pleasure or having a harem or amassing great wealth for himself and not have consequences for his actions. Last Wednesday, I went to a Bible study at Pastor Tajima’s church and he talked about Solomon in 1 Kings and Ecclesiastes and I finally realized that Solomon did have consequences for his actions; he just never bothered to mention them in Ecclesiastes. It was one of those “Ah ha” moments. I love when that happens.