BLOG: What I learned from a cobra

Namwan (15) got this shot this evening of our property. She was standing in the cafeteria looking across towards our houses.

Rainy season is watery, as one would expect. Our feet get wet, our floors get muddy, our clothes get spattered, and the snakes get a little too ambitious.

Hospitality has its limits. I'm sorry to all you snakes lovers out there becasue I truly never want to offend. But snakes are horrible, especially when they're everywhere. And especially when they're venomous. I know all about the ecosystem and all the arguments everyone has, but I refuse to share space willingly with a venomous creature that slithers into everywhere.

So now that some of you have me marked as heartless, let me not also leave you thinking I'm dense. Because I'm over here learning the lessons God is teaching me, one cringe-worthy snake at a time.

Years ago, I walked up the back porch steps of our aged Thai house and, as I crossed the threshold, something fell from above and landed on my neck. It was heavy and awful and I turned to see it sliding away quickly to avoid prosecution. I was stricken and I have no idea how I made it to church that morning. But God provides strength when we ask for it and so I asked and He provided.

I guess that answers how I made it.

Anyway, church that day wasn't at our church building (I don't remember why, exactly, but I'm almost certain it was due to rain and flooding) so instead we gathered at our then-outdoor kitchen for the service.

I remember there was a gentle breeze and I remember thinking it was so nice to be having church outside. And then I remember spotting a child who was looking up to the rafters above with their mouth gaped open. The reflexive response when you see such a thing is to follow their gaze and see what you're missing.

I apparently have good reflexes.

As my eyes shifted upward, they shivered right in the sockets. Because just above where we were sitting was the largest python I've seen in my life. To be fair, I haven't seen a lot of pythons but this guy was easily a grandfather or maybe even a great-grandfather. And he had his head up as though he, too, was enjoying the breeze and the sermon. I, of course, maintained absolute control and didn't utter a peep. Or I shrieked out loud. I can't really remember.

What I do know is the whole service was interrupted as everyone noticed we weren't alone.

What happened next defies logic because we quieted everyone and finished the church service, allowing that massive reptile to continue listening in while flicking its awful tongue. I tried so hard not to look but I kept looking.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. It's a thing.

The service ended and the men present wrestled that monster down. It took all of them and it took a long time. As it landed with a thud onto the ground right next to where we eat, a wild woman could be heard screaming in the background, "Kill it! Kill it!"

I have no idea who she was but she was wearing my clothes. Also, her husband heard wrong and seemed to believe she was scared for the snake and therefore was screaming, "DON'T kill it! DON'T kill it!" There's no other explanation for the release of that giant constrictor that caused loss of sleep as some among us wondered if it would slip into the room of a small child and squeeze them.

The good news is, we're years down the road now and we haven't seen it again. But the snake saga has continued.

A child got locked in a bathroom with a cobra, another stepped on one in their bedroom at night. One stepped on one in that same outdoor kitchen and yet another put his hand right next to a viper. Never a single bite. Not one.

Exposure therapy. That's what Val called it when she came to visit because she was deathly afraid of spiders and we've got more of those than we have snakes. Exposure to her fear didn't make her like spiders but it did help her learn to cope.

That's how I feel about snakes.

A few weeks ago Nik was driving out of the property when he passed our campfire ring and spotted the longest snake he'd ever seen. It wasn't our old friend, the python, so we started talking about what kind it might be. That's when 10 year old Zachy told us a story he'd failed to mention earlier.

That very morning he'd walked from the house to go to the cafeteria when he saw a huge snake going after a kitten. Now a boy with a slingshot would never allow a kitten to be killed by a snake if he had breath in him. Zach had both a slingshot and breath and so, without considering my fragile nerves, he loaded his sling and shot that snake. The footless beast slithered away pouting because his perfectly good meal had been interrupted while Zach pocketed his slingshot and went to breakfast.

Turns out that crazy snake was almost certainly a King Cobra and the first of its kind we've spotted. And then twice in one day. And my child shot it to save a kitten. The girls and I discussed plane tickets to a non-vemonous country and yet here we are, weeks later. God sustains.

That brings us to today. Like a real teacher, I assigned my homeschool boys a group project to make a youtube short, start to finish. We post shorts sometimes to give people a glimpse into life here and so I figured this was a good opportunity for them to work cooperatively and learn new skills. I didn't expect them to choose the topic they chose.

Non-venomous snakes of Thailand.

I suppose I could, and should, be thankful they chose "non-venomous". Instead I felt a little shaken and like I was regretting trying to impersonate a real teacher. But God spoke quietly to me and I knew He was asking me to let them do it. I smiled weakly and told them I thought it was a good plan.

They've never been so eager as they were when I gave them the green light to go look for snakes.

So today they caught a bunch of them and took footage explaing about the unique characteristics of each. It seemed long to me and I was thinking maybe they forgot it was for a short. But they were immensely enjoying themselves (which concerns me, honestly) so I let them go until they broke for lunch.

Following a solid meal at the cafeteria, we walked back to the house and I led the way into the home office. Walking past the doorway leading to the living room, I heard Zach behind me warning, "There's a snake, mom!" So I did what of course I would do when I hear there's a snake in a room with my children. I turned around and walked back to save them.

Except Zach was the real hero because, in his words, this is what happened: "It had it's head up watching you walk past so I stomped my foot to scare it back from you. And then you turned and walked past the same spot again." Nobody thought it was venomous because it didn't look like the cobras we usually see, but everyone was being careful and treating the situation like it was dangerous. Levi got his camera to grab footage of a snake in the house because what better timing than on a day where they're filming snakes? Never mind the semi-panicked lady in the background yelling for people to get onto the table and out of the way. She was wearing my clothes again and nobody got on the table so I almost think I'm the only one who can hear her voice.

Then that dreadful rope of a thing fanned out its head and everyone quickly realized it wasn't what we thought it was. The snake is gone but a lesson took root in my mind.

Because we live in a place with snakes, we're VERY aware of snakes. We watch where we walk, we're careful where we put our hands, we stuff the cracks under our doors, and we never walk in the dark because it's much safer in the light.

We would never walk past a cobra poking its head out to watch us pass and do nothing about it. NEVER would I EVER say "oh never mind! it's bad and it could kill us but it would take too much work to remove it."

That would be insanity.

And yet, when God is so kind to warn us of a danger in our habits that will spiritually kill us, that is most often how we respond. It's too much work. It's uncomfortable. Surely it's not that dangerous.

And so we live with those cobras, dying from the slow venom they inject day after ordinary day. Just enough, but not too much, so we don't really notice it. And then we notice less. And then not at all. Completely normal.

Those crazy things can cozy right up in our midst and we'll start joking about how we used to be worried about them and how silly that was but thankfully we're so much less uptight now.

Exposure therapy can work in reverse, too.

God allows us what we need to experience so we grow. As I live with venomous snakes around me, I don't walk in fear anymore, though I definitely walk in awareness. He doesn't protect us from the things that'll stretch us in good ways but He shields us from the things that will kill us in the worst ways. We have to be willing to cooperate.

When we see a "cobra" because He's made it visible to us, that thing has to go. Reasoning it can stay because of the "ecosystem" or culture or habit or personality or any other excuse we come up with is playing with the enemy's venom.

And the venom will win.

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The video below was shot by Levi and it does show a cobra, alive and then stunned, so don't click if you don't want to see that.