Snake in the Grass

Ok, not in the grass.  It was in our garage.

This past Saturday we had a visitor.  A garter snake(?) decided to come and visit and try to climb in between the boards in our garage.

Nathan quickly grabbed onto the snake by the tail to prevent him from getting all the way in there.

It took A LOT of coaxing and gentle pulling to get him out.

Once he was all the way out, we realized he was a lot bigger than we had anticipated.

I don't like snakes and neither does Nathan.  However, I didn't want Nathan to kill the snake, so I asked him to let it go in our garden.  After all, the snake hadn't hurt anyone and it was just trying to hide from us in the garage.  Snakes are also good at getting rid of rodents, and we have had our fair share of those in year's past.  So I convinced Nathan to put it in our garden where it could kill mice and live a happy life.

After a few minutes, I went out to check on the snake.  He had slithered over to our grapevine and was hiding in the partial shade.  

Then I started to worry.  I know little birdies like to hang out in our grapevine.  

My mind went back to a talk from last General Conference called These Things I Know by Boyd K. Packer.  I was remembering this story...

The back windows of our home overlook a small flower garden and the woods which border a small stream. One wall of the house borders on the garden and is thickly covered with English ivy. Most years this ivy has been the nesting place for house finches. The nests in the vines are safe from foxes and raccoons and cats that are about.

One day there was a great commotion in the ivy. Desperate cries of distress came as 8 or 10 finches from the surrounding woods came to join in this cry of alarm. I soon saw the source of the commotion. A snake had slid partway down out of the ivy and hung in front of the window just long enough for me to pull it out. The middle part of the snake’s body had two bulges—clear evidence convicting it of taking two fledglings from the nest. Not in the 50 years we had lived in our home had we seen anything like that. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience—or so we thought.

A few days later there was another commotion, this time in the vines covering our dog run. We heard the same cries of alarm, the gathering of the neighborhood finches. We knew what the predator was. A grandson climbed onto the run and pulled out another snake that was still holding on tightly to the mother bird it had caught in the nest and killed.

I said to myself, “What is going on? Is the Garden of Eden being invaded again?”

There came into my mind the warnings spoken by the prophets. We will not always be safe from the adversary’s influence, even within our own homes. We need to protect our nestlings.

We live in a very dangerous world that threatens those things that are most spiritual. The family, the fundamental organization in time and eternity, is under attack from forces seen and unseen. The adversary is about. His objective is to cause injury. If he can weaken and destroy the family, he will have succeeded.

Latter-day Saints recognize the transcendent importance of the family and strive to live in such a way that the adversary cannot steal into our homes. We find safety and security for ourselves and our children in honoring the covenants we have made and living up to the ordinary acts of obedience required of the followers of Christ.

I started to worry that the snake that we had carefully pulled out of the boards in the garage, would end up killing some of the birds that snack on the grapes in our vine.  Should we have just killed it when we had the chance?

I couldn't help but liken this experience to my role as a mother.  I am in charge of protecting my home so that my children can grow and flourish there.  It is my job to make sure that they are fed, feel safe and loved while they are within the walls of my home.  I also need to try and provide an atmosphere where they can feel the spirit.  But, like Elder Packer said, this is a battle.

Do I let "snakes" into my home because I want to be nice and not hurt anyone's feelings?  Do I allow snakes into my home because they are good at killing other problems (ie: boredom, nagging, etc...)?

I really need to go out to my garden and trim my grapevine; it's been on my "to do" list for a while now.  I'm just a little nervous to do it now.  I'm not looking forward to another run-in with the snake.