The Boa

“Be alert and sober minded” (I Peter 5:8)

It can travel over two hundred seventy-eight feet through a forest to enter the hole of a large mammal.  It then coils itself up and waits for its victim for days.  I’m talking about a boa constrictor.  But not just any snake.  A boa is a snake that kills by coiling itself around its prey and asphyxiating it to death.

The bible is clear.  Satan is a snake.  A belly-crawling, traitor, betrayer, double-crosser.  God’s word plasters his ways all over the opening pages of its’ sacred text, revealing him slithering his way into the pristine Garden of Eden and coiling himself around our first ancestors (Genesis 3:1).  A warning to all of us.  As well, the bible ends with “the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan” being hurled to the earth. (Revelation 12:9).

Yeah!  Victory in Jesus!

But in between the introduction and the finale of life as we know it on this planet, Satan, like the boa constrictor, worms his way up and down this world, coiling himself around his prey and asphyxiating humanity with sin and destruction.  He seeks to find an opening in our life, an unprotected area, the right place and time to strike at us.  It could be an attitude we harbor in our heart that over time begins to ooze with the puss and poison of wickedness.  Or it can be a habit we try to camouflage and hide from others.  It could be something from our past that has now festered into a wound of unforgiveness and bitterness.  Even our pride, jealousy, insecurity, rejection can present an opening for the ancient serpent to infiltrate.  Perhaps it’s our penchant for gossip, or our fixation with the internet or a program we know we should not be watching.  Anything this world has to offer, even the good things, have the potential to turn sour and become a transgression.  An opening for the boa himself to slither his way in, coil himself around us – and suffocate the goodness of Christ out of us.

Right now, Satan is curled up in a hole somewhere close to our lives, just waiting to strike us when we least expect.  He needs only one small opening.  No wonder Peter warned us in I Peter 5:8 to “Stay alert!  Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion (or a coiled boa), seeking someone to devour.”

                                                        Darlene