Snake Encounter

















It was a quiet, hot day, almost mesmeric.

Cheryll and I were on holidays at Coolum.

















 We’d driven to Lake Cootharaba, hired a little motorboat and crossed the lake to the other side. There we walked along a narrow track leading to the coloured sands.




























 I was completely absorbed in the beautiful sunlit scenery as I followed Cheryll along the track.

 My thoughts began to drift while I enjoyed the shimmering hot countryside covered with a profusion of wildflowers – mauve, white and yellow.



Suddenly Cheryll leapt backwards and grabbed my hand, saying, ‘Nettie! Nettie! A snake!’

I looked down and sure enough, a huge, long brown snake opened its oh-so-wide jaw about six centimetres from my ankle and hissed. There was no doubt about its intentions.



My mind froze. Time stopped. Random, illogical ideas filled my thoughts. Cheryll must be scared. She’s holding my hand.

This seemed to last for ages. It must really have been about two seconds.

Somehow I snapped out of my shock.

‘Go away in the name of Jesus!’ I bellowed.

Perhaps it was the sheer volume. Or the vibrations from my yelling.

 I prefer to think it was the name of Jesus.

The snake turned and fled.

We continued our walk over to the coloured sands. I apologised to Cheryll, who had actually rescued me.

Needless to say, we prayed for God’s protection before returning down the long winding track to our boat.




Comments

  1. Cheryll28 March 2020 at 10:01

    Beautiful memories of a beautiful day. And how wonderful that God who created such beauty was right there with us. We walk day by day in the company of the King. That is a very great privilege.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jeanette Grant-Thomson28 March 2020 at 16:38

    Yes, it really was a beautiful day. Such a special place and the adventure of boating across. God was certainly with us, in the beauty of His creation and the actual 'spotting' of the snake. How great that it really did flee! Thanks for commenting online.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lesley Turner28 March 2020 at 19:19

    Well done to tell it to go aware in Jesus name! Thank you Lord!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jeanette Grant-Thomson28 March 2020 at 20:37

    It was just like a knee jerk reaction, Lesley. My brain wasn't doing too well. Presumably my spirit was still working. Thanks for commenting!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nola Lorraine30 March 2020 at 00:16

    A great example of the power of Jesus' name. Thanks for sharing :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jeanette Grant-Thomson30 March 2020 at 01:13

      Yes it was! Fortunately. Thanks for commenting on the blog, Nola.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We'll call him Jonah

Image
Last week I left us on holidays in New Zealand. This week we take a detour into my future, years later when I lived in Nambour, a delightful country town just north of Brisbane. Something felt different about that day. I hurried onto the Nambour railway platform, wondering what was important about this particular journey to Brisbane. I travelled down regularly to visit my mother with Alzheimer’s disease but this day I’d felt a clear whisper from God to pray for my train trip. There were quite a few people waiting on the platform but there was space at the end of a seat with a youngish man seated at the other end, so I sat there. “Do you have a pen I can borrow?” the man asked. Do I ever go anywhere without a pen? I handed him my biro and he proceeded to write some notes. A whirring whine announced the arrival of the train. The man, who introduced himself – we’ll call him Joe, as I tend to think of him as Jonah – said, “Oh, I’m not finished with your
Read more

The Silver Lining: Is there any way we can keep it?

Image
The pandemic and the shutdown A strange silence broods over the land. It is early April 2020 and Australia is in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Attempting to halt the movement of the virus, the government has placed severe restrictions on everyone. Night after night, television brings news of more severe restrictions. Even families can no longer get together. Anything to protect us ‘oldies’. Shopping must be done alone, for necessities only, and we must keep one point five metres between us and the next shopper. And this is after the initial panic buying, when frightened shoppers grabbed armfuls of all necessities. Toilet paper ran out in most stores! Fear is etched on people’s faces. The news each night tells of multitudes of deaths in various countries, statistics growing nightly. Health workers are catching the virus as they help the sick. Some die. Businesses fold as restrictions have forbidden shoppers, tourists and others, so alarming numbers are out of work, with
Read more

June - Time to Celebrate

Image
  WooHoo! Celebration time. June marks fifty years since, after a series of undeniable ‘God incidents’, I said ‘Yes’ and became a Christian. I was twenty-five.   I’m amazed to find myself so old and so Christian. It’s all happened very fast – well, so it feels.   If you’d seen me fifty- one years ago, before I became a Christian, you would never have dreamt it. I was the girl least likely to become a Christian. In fact, one friend said, ‘If Jeanette becomes a Christian, I’ll believe it all.’ She figured she was safe as an unbeliever. Hah!     Early Hints There were hints during my childhood and teenage years. Chinks in the solid wall that kept me focussed on the material world, rarely dreaming there was anything more. One such chink occurred when I was fourteen.        A Chink It was a hot Brisbane summer day. A skinny fourteen year old, I sat on the verandah of our lovely old Queenslander, my legs stretched out over the weather-beaten floor boards. I gazed at
Read more