When Mom and I pulled into my driveway, I knew something strange was happening. My daughter Sara was standing in front of my garage door and she was yelling at something and stomping her feet.

Unfortunately for me, I had already pushed the button to raise the garage door. I was riding with my mom and had the door remote with me.

“You shouldn’t have opened the door! I was trying to keep it from getting into the garage,” Sara yelled as I stepped out of mom’s van.

My first thought was of a large hairy spider. My next thought was how I was going to get into the house without getting close to it. Like I was going to calmly walk by a big icky spider.

Good news: as I neared the garage, I realized it wasn’t a spider. Bad news: I watched a little rat snake slither into the garage. It curled up in front of the post between the garage doors. It was mere inches from “being outside” where it belonged.

“Don’t kill it!” Sara begged. She is like me in that she doesn’t like to see anything die.

“I have no intention of killing it,” I answered. I picked up a large round spool of tape off of Tim’s work bench. My intention was to frighten it so it would crawl away and back outside.

I threw the spool too far to the left. It bounced on the concrete and rolled out into the driveway. I felt as if the snake was thinking, “Nice try.”

My next option was my Clorox bottle that I use to clean my kitchen. I ran in, got it, and ran back out. I squirted the Clorox on the floor out form the snake. My hope was the odor would drive it out.

It drove it to move alright. Instead of going back out, it crawled into a little hole in the sheetrock and slithered up and out of sight.

I didn’t think about that happening.

Honestly, I was glad I couldn’t see it any more. I thought it would get hot and crawl back out later. We went on into the house and had lunch.

Later, Tim called from work and I told him about my snake adventure. Let’s just say he was somewhat aggravated that I didn’t get it out of the garage. I became aggravated too.

“Did you expect me to grab it by its tail and pull it back outside?”

“You could’ve use the shovel to get it outside,” he argued.

To which I quickly replied, “You seriously wanted me to sling a shovel while I was standing inches away from my car?”

That was the end of that conversation.

I know he was thinking of himself in that he could sling the shovel and not hit my car with it. Sometimes he forgets just how clumsy I am.

“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Proverbs 4:25 (KJV)

I got to thinking about it, if Sara hadn’t been at the house first, I may not have seen that snake until I was upon it. Seriously, my mind is always somewhere else. It’s best to pay attention to what is around you and look forward. This is even true from a spiritual perspective. Satan is mighty sneaky.

If you read my article, “Its Dead Tim,” you’ll remember Tim is as afraid of snakes as I am of spiders. When he came home that night, I expected him to tiptoe through the garage with the shovel or broom or both. He didn’t pick up either one. He walked around the garage as he inspected every nook and cranny. If he had seen it, I’m sure the neighbors would’ve heard him too.