Poisonous snakes......what?

So God sent poisonous snakes. Really. It's in the Bible.

Unlike hundreds of other oft quoted and erroneously attributed bon mots, this one is actually in the Bible.  I'll bet it raises all kinds of questions for you.  It does for me and I do quite a bit of biblical interpretation.

Certainly God was frustrated with the good people of Israel who God had claimed and rescued from slavery and fed in the wilderness and provided with a good though flawed leader.  That is, of course, if one could attribute emotions to the Divine.  But if God were anything like you and me, God would have been frustrated, perhaps even a bit peeved.

The primary occupation of this fine group of people in the wilderness appears to be complaining.  And murmuring.  And demanding something new and better.  Chapter after chapter of the Old Testament story we watch as the people forget the wondrous gifts they have already received at the hand of the almighty and begin to whine about something new.  God does much to placate and provide.  Moses does much to talk God out of a few of the more dire possibilities when dealing with this disagreeable people.  Until Numbers 21 when "God sent poisonous snakes."

In a world who prefers to criticize rather than consider God, I hesitate to bring up this unusual episode,but not because I fail to understand why God was annoyed.  I also can easily understand how quickly we mortals can forget the bounty of our lives, the abundance of God's gifts to us and shift to that deadly "What have you done for me lately?" mode.

We can get trapped by the extreme and the ordinary.....by the chemo which we hope will give us a few more years .....to the endless snow, salt, boots, runny noses, school delays,high utility bills, etc.  It wears us down.  Of course we know there will be an outcome.  Sometimes, the possible outcome is frightening; sometimes the outcome just appears to be more of the same struggle.

So I understand when we slip into "if I just had....." mode.  A vacation in a warm climate; a $50 raise at work; a promise that this would give me some more time with my children; a boss who wasn't such a .....   I get it.  If only..........these are the words that lead to our great forgetfulness.  These are the words that warn us that we are about to ignore the blessings of this day.

So let's wrestle with our "if only" frame of mind.  My mother would tell me when I got into one of these 'wishing' modes that I risked wishing away my life.  I'd take it even further.  When "if only" is your frame of reference, you risk losing the spirit that is life.  That wonderful energy that can pulse through our bodies, making us laugh, showing us beauty, helping us savor that piece of chocolate cake.....that energy will seep right out of you until you become the walking dead.

The cure is remembering........but what shall we remember?  That's tomorrow's post.  Today be thankful, remember, give pause and find one thing that today gives you a touch of pleasure.  I give thanks for you - whoever you are, wherever you are.

Go and be God's beloved today.