The Spider and the Snake

Our oldest daughter’s family spent a week at our cabin recently.  When we returned late one night, we turned back the covers to get in bed, exhausted from a long day of driving.  And on my pillow was a large fuzzy spider, and on my husband’s pillow was a coiled snake.  In this case, it was not a cause of alarm, but a joke concocted  by the minds of our four year old granddaughter and three year old grandson.  These fearful objects were just old Beany Baby stuffed animals from the toy chest.

They were not real, but just the product of an entrepreneur’s imagination.  Indeed, the snake was even smiling – in a good sort of way.

I crawled in bed, still chuckling.  And I thought about all the ridiculous things that I have feared through the years, products of my own imaginings.   A house always creaks most in the middle of the night.  Dark shadows appear when my confidence wanes.  Phantoms from my past threaten to emerge out of nowhere at the most inconvenient moments.  And of course, the biggest fear, able to adhere itself to any situation, “What if….?”

We all have a list of fearful things that when revealed we lament, “I was afraid of that??!!”

Know your fears. Know when to flee for your life.

Know when to laugh.

The fear of man lays a snare,

but he who trusts in the LORD

                                       is safe.

          

                Proverbs 29.25