I have a snake that lives in my back yard.  A good snake.   He is a four foot long garden snake.  I've seen him twice now.  He comes to the Koi pond to drink water.  He eats bugs, and keeps mice away.  Although there aren't many mice around--maybe because I have a "pest controller" in the yard?

He has a yellow stripe down his back, but is otherwise dark in color.  My daughter has a six foot black snake that lives in her back yard.  He crawls into the hen house and eats her eggs.  I asked her what she was going to do about that, and she said that an egg or two every week was a small price to pay for keeping the mice away from her hen house.

Every one seems to be afraid of snakes.  I think they are interesting.  I like frogs and earthworms and such.  One of my friends had a son that used to bring me earthworms from time to time for my garden.  He would knock at the door and hand me a coffee can full of dirt and wigglers.  I would rather have a can of earthworms than a dozen roses any day of the week.

I think the fear of snakes comes from a mistaken idea of the serpent in the garden of Eden.  The serpent was a beautiful winged creature.  Said to be the most beautiful of all creatures.  There is no way that Eve would have been tempted by something ugly.  Certainly she wouldn't have been tempted by a snake.

But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God cast them out of the garden and condemned the serpent to forever more slink around on his belly in the dust: hence the name "serpent" was wrongly attached to a snake.  Genesis 3:14-15  Evil was disguised as a serpent, beautiful, and above all other creatures.  You yourself will never be tempted by something ugly and repugnant.  The devil tempts us with things that are alluring to us.  And the alluring things of the world lead to our downfall.

That serpent knows you well.  He knows your weak spots.  That's where he will tempt you.  "Be sober, be vigilant...your adversary, the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 5:8