The patio used to be safe

My mom lives in a quaint townhouse with a sunny back patio. We often eat out there on warm evenings, celebrate birthdays and such. It is very pleasant. But, this summer, I received a panicked call from her. She had discovered a snake in her courtyard. Now she hates snakes. And I inherited that from her. And as it turns out, this was not just any snake, it was a huge rattlesnake. In fact, when the animal control person came to remove it, she said it was the biggest rattlesnake she had ever seen. It was about six feet long and the rattle alone was about eight inches. It was the width of a man's arm. The next day she looked out on her patio and saw two more (see photo above – this was the smaller one). They were also hauled off by animal control.

So a couple weeks later I am invited to celebrate a family birthday party at my mom's place. Did I mention I hate snakes? As we celebrated my nephew's birthday, my mom says, "Let's go out into the courtyard." I say, "Thanks. I think I'll just sit here in the living room." She says, "It's a nice warm summer evening, let's go out?" I respond, "No I don't think so!" Finally I sat there, craning my neck in every direction the whole evening. I was the picture of discomfort.

Here's the point: The courtyard didn't change. But my perception of it had changed.

I love talking to little kids about God. Their perception of him is huge. To them God is so big. But then we grow up. And life happens. And we encounter a snake or two, or worse, and somewhere along the way our view of God diminishes. Instead life gets big, problems get big, threats loom large … and our view of God changes. He sort of shrinks. And all the while God didn't change … but our perception of Him did.

How we need a clearer picture of God. A.W. Tozer said, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." That is an amazing statement.

How we need a clearer picture of God.