Beware, the rains have come

The rains have started. What a relief! The fields are turning green and plants are starting a growth spurt.

Unfortunately all sorts of less welcome things accompany the rainy season, ranging from the weeds which demonstrate an even greater growth spurt, to hungry mosquitoes which prefer my blood to my wife’s. Then there are the snakes and other unwelcome visitors in the veld where we walk our two dogs and stretch our ageing legs each afternoon. Hungry ticks have arrived and enjoy the meals the dogs unwittingly provide. Some of these ticks carry biliary fever, which can be lethal to non-immune dogs and may even overwhelm local dogs’ defences.

Yesterday I came upon a small puff adder, with its diamond-shaped head and very beautiful markings. Puff adders move very slowly, but don’t be fooled, they strike like lightning. Both of our dogs have suffered puff adder bites in the past. Once they attacked a large puff adder simultaneously from opposite directions, but both suffered bites around the head, which fortunately responded to doses of steroids, without leaving serious after-effects. I don’t like killing creatures, especially when they’re so beautifully marked, but I realised this one would grow and become a serious threat to any person or animal walking this path, so I killed it.

Temptation can look very appealing and may seem insignificant, but it will grow as we succumb to it and eventually may become a serious threat to our Christian life and witness. The little voices may suggest: “Just try it once and that will be the end of it”. But it’s not the end, and the voices will be louder next time, then when we fall for the temptation, those same voices condemn us as weak and useless. In James 4:7,10 we read: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you…. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” In God’s strength we can repent and overcome anything which has a hold on us. We will immediately be free and know His forgiveness and peace. Then as we live in God’s presence each day, we can rise above temptations, and know the joy of victory.